Thames Water: Ofwat slammed as it 'consults' on plans to let UK water firm 'dodge fines' - activists demand company 'must lose its licence'

Cat Hobbs, Director of campaign group We Own It, told NationalWorld that the licence of the debt-riddled water firm to operate “should already have been taken away several times over” as “this failure of a company has allowed raw sewage to pour into our rivers and seas while handing illegal dividends to shareholders.” Ms Hobbs said that “without a threat of losing their licences, the whole water sector will feel they can get away with anything”.

We Own It is calling on Ofwat “to stop beating around the bush and bring Thames Water into public ownership now”. Their call to the public has been issued as the campaign group says Ofwat is planning to “let Thames Water off from a fine of £250 million after it broke its licence”. The group said that Ofwat is “consulting on plans to accept Thames Water’s proposals for a ‘turnaround plan’ instead of fining them”.

Ms Hobbs said: “Failing privatised water companies shouldn't be nursed back to health at our expense. It's time the biggest water company in England actually worked for households and the environment instead of a handful of shareholders around the world."

We Own It has an email template that the public can use to send to the regulator’s Consultation Team. In the email template it says that Thames Water “has failed to look after our rivers and seas by underinvesting in infrastructure and claim they did not know 312 sites where sewage can spill even existed”. The template adds that the water firm “believes it can avoid the £104 million fine announced last week for sewage pollution and has yet to pay £40 million you proposed for its illegal dividend”.

Many people on X, formerly Twitter, have posted that they have used the template to email Ofwat. One user posted on X: “Please sign and share this email. Let's put Thames Water and its customers out of their misery. Thank you.“

A recent investigation by Ofwat said Thames Water had failed to adequately invest in and maintain their networks, leading to repeated releases of raw sewage into the country’s waterways. It proposed the largest fine on record of £104m.

The water firm has been under fire not only for its sewage discharges into UK rivers and seas but also because of its debt pile that it has racked up over the years. It warned that it may run out of money by next May due to a lack of new investment. The water firm said that a "remedial plan" was now required to be prepared for its lenders as it was not meeting the terms of certain compliance tests.

Its debts are now above £15bn - but the firm’s latest report showed payment of two dividends worth £158.3m in March. The company also said it had returned to profit over the financial year with earnings of £75m.

Last month Thames Water’s debt was downgraded to junk status meaning it breached its licence conditions. After, Ofwat announced it will be appointing an independent monitor to supervise Thames Water’s turnaround plan after it breached its licence conditions last month when some of its debt was downgraded to junk status.

David Black, Chief Executive of Ofwat, said: “We are clear that Thames Water needs to remedy its licence breach, turnaround its operational performance and secure backing from investors to restore its loss of investment grade credit rating. These enforceable commitments will include our putting an independent Monitor into the business, to report back to us on what is happening to drive meaningful change in performance, and to ensure appropriate expertise is added to their Board. We will continue to monitor progress very closely and will not hesitate to take any further action if necessary.”