Thames Water supply ‘on knife-edge’ with £23bn repairs needed
Exclusive: Company has failed to tackle serious safety concerns or upgrade vital IT systems, Guardian investigation reveals
Yet they plan a massive shareholder payout https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/04/23/thames-water-plots-2bn-shareholders-despite-collapse-threat/
And paid over £7bn in dividends in the past https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jun/30/in-charts-how-privatisation-drained-thames-waters-coffers
Has to be bankrupted and nationalised now.
"Saving" all that money... then forking out 9.5 million on yearly executive bonuses...
While that's obviously gross, I'm not sure some budget public service pleb who wouldn't last 5 mins in a real business wouldn't simply make things worse
Quick calculation: that’s ~£98.3k per person in the Thames Valley area.
Thames Valley area
Just FYI: Thames water covers a larger population than that. Much of London is not technically in the Thames valley.
EDIT: I'll add. It's anecdotal, as I can't remember when or where I read it. But I seem to remember a Thames water complaint a good while back. That much of the older London area they cover has not been worked on for over 100 years. And is listed such that the cost is beyond them.
Not sure if I buy it given modern techniques etc. But I'm no expert.