Thames Water says turnaround will 'take time' - BBC.com

Thames Water says turnaround will 'take time'
Thames Water has said that reviving the business will "take time" as it struggles to improve services while coping with billions of debts. The comments came as Thames said profits for the first half of its financial year had halved to £246m. Worries persist about how the UK's largest water company will deal with its debts, which rose 7% to £14.7bn. Concern over its financial strength earlier this year led to speculation it might be taken over by the government. Thames Water's two interim chief executives have said that will not be necessary as it has more than £3bn in cash and recently got a £500m cash injection from its shareholders. However, the source of that money was a further loan and the chairman of the Environment Select Committee, Sir Robert Goodwill, has questioned whether Thames has represented its finances accurately. In response, the company wrote to Sir Robert saying that the £500m "does not increase the debt burden" on Thames Water. Investors have also said they will pump in an additional £750m but that is contingent on the regulator agreeing to bill increases of 40% by 2030. Thames Water's co-chief executives, Cathryn Ross and Alastair Cochran, said: "It is clear that immediate and radical action is required." They added: "Turning around Thames will take time. We simply cannot do everything that our customers and stakeholders wish to see at a pace and for a price that everyone would like. "We will continue to make the tough choices required to deliver what matters most to our customers and the environment." Last week, the auditors of Thames' parent company - Kemble Water Holdings - warned there was a "material concern" over its future. This was partly due to uncertainty over how a £190m loan, which is due for repayment in April 2024, will be refinanced. Thames' latest results show that the number of pollution incidents increased during the six months to September. It admitted performance had "deteriorated", with number of category 1-3 pollutions - where category 1 is the most serious - had risen to 257 from 217 in the same period last year. The company said its three-year turnaround plan "addresses and mitigates the major drivers of pollutions across our wastewater network and sewage treatment works". "We are committed to tackle the root causes of pollutions to meet the expectations of our communities and the needs of the environment." Earlier this year, Thames Water was fined £3.3m after it discharged millions of litres of untreated sewage into two rivers near Gatwick in 2017, killing more than 1,400 fish. Later on Tuesday, Labour will table a motion calling on the government to give the water regulator, Ofwat, powers to ban the payment of bonuses to water bosses if their companies are discharging "significant" levels of raw sewage into UK waterways.