Some of Thames Water’s creditors and Liberal Democrat MP Charlie Maynard can appeal against the approval of plans to restructure the utility at the Court of Appeal, a High Court judge has ruled. Mr Justice Leech ruled earlier on Tuesday that a proposal to inject up to £3 billion in funding, known as the “company plan”, could be sanctioned just weeks before the struggling utility was set to run out of money.
A group of the company’s Class B creditors had proposed an alternative “B plan”, which they claimed would provide the company with the same funding but on better terms and which should be adopted instead. At a hearing dealing with consequential matters arising from the ruling on Tuesday, barristers representing the Class B creditors asked for the green light to challenge the judgment at the Court of Appeal.
Mr Justice Leech gave them the go-ahead to take their challenge to the Court of Appeal, stating: “The press and public interest in this case makes it important, it seems to me, that the Court of Appeal should have the opportunity to scrutinise the decision and exercise of my discretion. “It should be important that the (Class B creditors) have the opportunity to run a considered appeal.”. The judge also ruled that proposed challenges over “procedural unfairness” and competition law could not be taken forward to the Court of Appeal, adding that he was “not satisfied that there was any fundamental lack of fairness”.
