Thames water

[Lowbankclaret]

Looks like a water company is going bust.

Exec pay, dividends plus othe issues being blamed.

Watching this one play out, could happen to loads of them.

[Lowbankclaret]

https://news.sky.com/story/ministers-we ... r-12910760

[Lowbankclaret]

Could be the first of many

[GodIsADeeJay81]

They've been utter toss for years, huge issues round here.
Not helped by the likes of Moran up at Abingdon blocking new reservoir's though, I'll admit that much.

[Lancasterclaret]

Be interesting to see what they have paid out in dividends

Its a perfect storm against uber capitalism in the UK at the moment - absolutely nothing works like it should and everything costs far too much, assuming you can get hold of it

[Lowbankclaret]

Water and sewage should be public. No way it should be a profit organisation.

[elwaclaret]

Thatcher privatised them because the upkeep was costing too much… they’ve spent thirty years screwing every penny out of the system doing bare minimum or less to keep their shareholders in clover… noe the system is screwed and will all have to come back into public ownership for taxes to fix it… ready for the next Tory to sell off again once it’s paid for…

[kentonclaret]

The water industry was privatised during the time of Margaret Thatcher. More than 70% of the English water industry is now owned by foreign investors. Thames Water has stakeholders from Abu Dhabi and China among others.
The Water Industry is in a complete mess just like our Railways.

[ClaretLoup]

TW is apparently £14 billion in debt and hasn’t paid out a dividend for six years.

I am not sure if this is the case at Thames but my experience in dealing with Anglian Water is that in their case they are owned by a Canadian hedge fund. AW borrows money from another company in the hedge fund portfolio at high interest rates thus sucking out any profits.

I note that one third of Thames is owned by a Canadian pension fund.

Where I live now a Chinese company owns Northumbria Water.

[Sproggy]

TW is apparently £14 billion in debt and hasn’t paid out a dividend** for six years.

**External dividend.

They still managed to pay £70,000,000 "internal dividends" in the last 2 years.

In a wonderful gesture, the CEO turned down the £500,000 performance related bonus this year (she took it last year). Her pay package is worth about £1,500,000 a year.

It's legalized theft.

[fatboy47]

Wealth redistribution.

Robin Hood in reverse.

We vote for it every 5 years. Best get on with it.

[ClaretLoup]

Sproggy. I’ve never heard of external and internal dividends. Would you be kind enough to enlighten me as to what the difference is please?

[houseboy]

Water and sewage should be public. No way it should be a profit organisation.

I’ve said this since it was privatised. It was always a privatisation too far. A life essential product in the hands of profiteers with a total monopoly on its customers. It was always a disaster.

[Sproggy]

Sproggy. I’ve never heard of external and internal dividends. Would you be kind enough to enlighten me as to what the difference is please?

Internal dividends are payments between holding companies in the group, whereas external dividends are the type you're more familiar with. Thames claim that the internal dividend is paid "to fund debt obligations and working capital requirements".

[Lord Beamish]

Most of this country’s problems are completely self-inflicted. We deserve the Government we vote for and the institutions and systems they are granted to implement.
No one to blame but ourselves.

[fatboy47]

Most of this country’s problems are completely self-inflicted. We deserve the Government we vote for and the institutions and systems they are granted to implement.
No one to blame but ourselves.

This 100%.

It'd be ever so nice though, if we had a political party that mandated itself to actually put this stuff right.

I live in hope.

[aggi]

A line that may interest some:

Its former owner between 2006 and 2016, the Australian bank Macquarie, was accused of “asset stripping” as it extracted billions in shareholder dividends while Thames’s debt soared.

[Claretitus]

And they have the bare-faced cheek to blame the lack of cleaned water, ready for consumers, on people “ working from home “. What a load of c**p. Nowt to do with all the leaks they never get round to mending.

[Taffy on the wing]

Water and sewage should be public. No way it should be a profit organisation.

Add Rail, Power & Healthcare.

[Cirrus_Minor]

They have all been literally taking the pi55

[BurnleyFC]

I know someone high up in Thames Water’s waste water services so am interested in how this pans out.

[Bosscat]

I know someone high up in Thames Water’s waste water services so am interested in how this pans out.

I know his Cistern she is high up in waste water too

[bfcjg]

I know his Cistern she is high up in waste water too

Groan

[Corky]

I’m sure I read somewhere that since privatisation the water utilities have collectively paid out £70 billion to shareholders whilst getting into debt to the tune of around £54 billion. Bonkers.

[Bosscat]

Groan

[bfcjg]

There is something fundamentally wrong IMHO when a country doesn't own its power,water,telecommunications, and rail industries. That coupled with the slow dismantling of our health service and under investment in education and our over reliance on imported food makes you wonder just what the hell have the governments been doing these last 50 years apart from feathering their own nests.

[Andreshotboots]

40% rise in our water bills next year too to pay for the sewage clean up...just what we all need.

[Sozturf7]

40% rise in our water bills next year too to pay for the sewage clean up...just what we all need.

Probably nearer 4% than 40% I bet 6%.

[BleedingClaret]

Most of this country’s problems are completely self-inflicted. We deserve the Government we vote for and the institutions and systems they are granted to implement.
No one to blame but ourselves.

You can vote in whoever you like they go into the same parliament and 99% of the controlling state is still in place regardless of the elected ruling party, and if they don’t operate within the agreed parameters they’ll be forced out.

[BleedingClaret]

This 100%.

It'd be ever so nice though, if we had a political party that mandated itself to actually put this stuff right.

I live in hope.

0%
There’s a system and anyone that doesn’t abide by it elected or not won’t survive, politically.

[dougcollins]

Probably nearer 4% than 40% I bet 6%.

Thats OK then, I forgive them.

[Lancasterclaret]

Chatting to my mate who works for one of the big electricity infrastructure companies, and he's saying that they have to try to do thirty years work in the next ten years just to keep on top of replacing stuff and new stuff for demand

We've absolutely tossed billions away to shareholders (and to be fair, pension funds) rather than spending it on infrastructure and we are all going to pay a very heavy price for that

[JohnMcGreal]

You can vote in whoever you like they go into the same parliament and 99% of the controlling state is still in place regardless of the elected ruling party, and if they don’t operate within the agreed parameters they’ll be forced out.

If they don't convincingly indicate that they'll operate within those parameters they won't even get in. British politics is a closed shop and we have an electoral system and a hostile press that's set up to keep it that way.

[Sproggy]

This sums it up nicely. And the 40% price rise is seemingly accurate- by 2030.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/9144 ... 355afcca0c