Campaigners urge high court to block £3bn Thames Water bailout
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Protesters gather in London as judges consider deal that will cost billpayers an estimated £250 a year each. Campaigners have gathered outside the high court in London calling for judges to block a financial bailout of struggling Thames Water. MPs, activists and members of the public were protesting on Tuesday outside the court where the privatised water company was seeking a £3bn financial lifeline.
The company is trying to secure approval from the high court for the money – referred to as a “liquidity extension” – which some creditors have already agreed to lend. Without this extension, the company, which has debts of £15bn, says it will run out of cash by next March.
Analysis by the campaign group We Own It, who were protesting outside the courts, estimates that the bailout, if approved, will cost customers £250 a year each. “This deal is for £3bn of cash right now that will be charged at a whopping 10% interest … that’s £250 a year from every household,” said Matthew Topham of We Own It. “We don’t think that households should have to pay to bail out Thames Water,” he said.
A letter from Windrush Against Sewage Pollution was being delivered to the judge hearing Thames’s application, by Charlie Maynard, the MP for Witney. The letter called for the court to hear submissions from the public on the bailout. “The outcome of this process will affect every household and business in the Thames region … the nature of the proceedings … means the court process is effectively out of sight and reach of all but the named participants in a proposed loan being arranged to keep TWUL in business by forcing its billpayers to bail it out for its previous and continuing excesses and failures.
