The sewage treatment works at Horley seem to be crumbling, much like owner Thames Water itself
The brochure boasts of a family-friendly community located in tranquil green space within easy reach of high-speed links to London.
However, the residents of a new development of 1,500 homes in Horley, Surrey, have recently set up a WhatsApp group, whose title illustrates a less attractive feature of the community: Stop the Poo.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Sarah Olney to press in parliament for details of scheme being drawn up in event of supplier’s collapse
Ministers must come clean on the secret details of an emergency plan for a taxpayer bailout in the event of Thames Water collapsing, a Liberal Democrat MP has said.
Sarah Olney will press in parliament this week for details of a behind-the-scenes rescue operation being drawn up for the biggest privatised water company in England. Olney said keeping the details of the contingency plan secret amounted to a cover-up.
Continue reading...Ministers disappointed by decision of one of worst sewage dumpers not to join England-wide initiative
Thames Water has risked a fresh backlash over its commitment to tackling sewage dumping after it declined to commit funds to a £180m industry-wide initiative to fast-track efforts to reduce pollution in England’s waterways.
The government said on Monday that the sum would be spent by six companies over the next 12 months to prevent more than 8,000 sewage spills, as water companies attempt to address their woeful record on tackling spills.
However, Britain’s biggest water company, which has a £14bn debt mountain, has not taken part in the drive and it is understood that government officials are disappointed in its refusal to do so.
Continue reading...Company faced public backlash over scheme, which campaigners say threatens to increase river pollution
Thames Water is bypassing local democracy to attempt to push through a controversial water recycling project that campaigners say threatens to increase pollution in the river.
Steve Barclay, the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, has agreed to an application by the water company to consider its Teddington water recycling scheme under national infrastructure rules. The decision means local authorities will be bypassed, and the secretary of state will make the decision whether to grant a development consent order.
Continue reading...Increased flooding blamed on years of government delays over ‘sponge cities’ rules
Increased sewage pollution, urban flooding and water supply interruptions are the result of a decade of failures by the Conservative ministers, according to water experts who are demanding an independent inquiry into water be set up by the next government.
The repeated failure of the Tories to implement rules to create “sponge cities” has led to much more visible sewage pollution, more flooding and increasing instances of water being cut off for householders and businesses, they say.
Continue reading...It looks as if USS simply overpaid and underestimated the effort and catch-up investment required
“We continue to view Thames Water as a long-term investment,” said the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the £75bn pension fund for UK academics, as it wrote down the value of its stake in the Thames’ parent by nearly two-thirds, or almost £600m. Top marks for cheerfulness, but it’s a line that recalls the old joke about the definition of a long-term investment: a short-term investment gone wrong.
USS and Canadian pension fund Omers, the other late arrival on Thames’ register in 2017 (they replaced the departing Macquarie and its co-travellers), surely cannot have imagined that the long term would stretch quite so far over the horizon. As USS says, it’s taken no dividends so far, and the current business plan imagines no income for shareholders until 2030 at the earliest. That’s a near-eternity in investment terms for utility assets, which are supposedly prized for their ability to generate steady cash.
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