Thames Water has significant issues to address, Ofwat says

The water regulator Ofwat has said Thames Water – the UK’s largest water company, has “significant issues to address” and needs to improve its “financial resilience.”

Thames Water serves a quarter of the UK population and is currently attempting to secure extra funds as its struggles with debt. 

The UK government has said it was ready to intervene if the company collapsed and there have been talks over potential nationalising of the company. 

Regardless of the outcome, water supplies will continue as normal. 

In a statement, Ofwat said it had been clear “that Thames Water has significant issues to address – their environmental record and leakage performance, for example, are poor”.

“Alongside the turnaround of their operational performance, they need to improve their financial resilience too.”

However, Ofwat also noted that the company still has access to funds. “It recently received an additional £500m from shareholders and has £4.4bn of cash and committed funding.”