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Thames Water has said it has sufficient funding to survive until the end of the year, as it scrambles to recapitalise to avoid nationalisation.
The UK’s largest water company, which serves ۱۶ million customers in London and the south of England, said it continued to work with creditors, regulators and the government on a recapitalisation plan.
Thames Water, which has been held up as a symbol of the privatised sector’s failures, has been blamed for polluting rivers and waterways with sewage leaks and has struggled under a ballooning debt pile.
In its annual results for the year to ۳۱ March, published on Wednesday, Thames reported that its net debt had risen to £۱۸.۵bn, up from £۱۶.۸bn a year earlier.
However, the company said its performance was improving as it reported underlying profit after tax of £۲۰۴m compared with £۱۳m a year earlier.
It said it had achieved an ۱۸% reduction in pollution in the ۱۲ months to the end of March compared with the same period a year earlier.
Despite this, Thames said it had only met ۵۵% (۱۱ out of ۲۰) of Ofwat’s common performance commitment targets, although this was an improvement on the ۳۸% it achieved a year earlier.
In recent weeks the environment secretary, Emma Reynolds, has objected to a £۱۰bn rescue proposal for the company put forward by ۱۰۰ institutional investors to the water regulator for England and Wales, Ofwat, saying it would place an “undue burden” on consumers.
This intervention pushed Britain’s biggest water company closer to a form of temporary nationalisation called a special administration regime.
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Andy Burnham, who is set to become the next prime minister within days, has called for “greater public control” over Thames and told the Guardian this could mean nationalisation.
Commenting on the annual results, Thames Water’s chief executive, Chris Weston, said: “While we have a lot more to achieve, the progress we have made in turning the company around has meant we are now performing better and are in a strong position to accelerate the delivery of the biggest upgrade of our infrastructure in ۱۵۰ years.
“This upgrade will, over time, address asset resilience issues and translate into sustained improvements in the services we provide for our customers and impact on the environment.”
