Sunak Presses Thames Water to Clean Up Own Financial Mess
- Ministers don’t want taxpayers to bail Thames out, people say
- Indebted Thames struggling to raise funds from investors
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Rishi Sunak’s administration is pressing Thames Water and its troubled parent to resolve their financial difficulties alone, raising the prospect that the crisis gripping the UK’s largest water utility will deepen in the coming weeks.
Ministers are so far rejecting pressure for the government to bring the company into special administration, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity discussing commercial issues. They don’t think it should be up to the government and taxpayers to help a private company that’s been poorly run, they said. Instead, they want Thames — which has £16 billion ($20.2 billion) of debt — to resolve its problems through negotiations with shareholders and water regulator Ofwat.