Thames Water to fight Burnham as ‘temporary nationalisation’ rumours swirl

Thames Water has f*cked up so badly that the government may be forced to nationalise it. Rather than holding its hands up and saying sorry, though, it seems the incompetent vultures managing the company are planning to take the government to court.

BREAKING: The group of investors engaged in a rescue bid for Thames Water are plotting a legal fight with Andy Burnham’s new government over nationalisation.

Our city editor @MarkKleinmanSky has the exclusive storyhttps://t.co/SHT8Hbpwmz pic.twitter.com/9rSuAm06yV

— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 18, 2026

Thames Water the focus of scandals upon scandals

Thames Water is arguably one of the worst companies operating in the UK today. The company is so bad in fact that it may soon cease to be a company entirely as the Canary’s Maddison Wheeldon wrote:

Thames Water’s shareholders are panicking as the prospect of public ownership threatens to bring their gravy train to an end.

The company is now sitting on £18.5 billion of debt, up from £16.8 billion a year ago. Instead of accepting responsibility for years of failure, the profiteers at the top are desperately trying to recapitalise the business to retain their cash cow.

Of course, this situation was always the predictable outcome of privatisation, especially with a natural monopoly like water, in which there can be no competition.

Once private companies own our vital national assets, they milk them for everything they’re worth. Thames Water didn’t just rinse us, either. It’s also rinsed banks and investors it seems, with the company now billions of pounds in debt.

Thames Water increased its bonus payouts to £4.1m for senior managers.

It has £19.7bn debt, fleeces customers, dumps sewage in rivers, loses billions of litres of water to leaky pipes.

But bosses rewarded .. for what?

Govt/Ofwat do nothing.https://t.co/bmvqFV8ESF

— Prem Sikka (@premnsikka) July 16, 2026

Now, the government might be forced to nationalise this absolute shambles of a company. While private companies have proven to be incompetent at providing water, they are generally pretty efficient at using the legal system to get their own way.

As Sky News has been reporting:

The group of investors engaged in a rescue bid for Thames Water are plotting a multibillion pound legal battle with Andy Burnham’s new government if it forcibly nationalises Britain’s biggest water company.

Sky News can reveal that the London & Valley Water (L&VW) consortium has engaged Pallas Partners – which describes itself as an “elite litigation and disputes firm” – to draw up plans for a legal fight with the government if its offer for the company is rejected.

Will anything change?

When the Canary spoke to Sophie Conquest, of We Own It, she said:

We’re at a point where this government could say, actually, we’re gonna bring it into special administration, slash the debts, get the best deal for the public purse, and from there bring it into permanent public ownership.

 

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As we noted, however:

The appointment of corporate adviser James Purnell to Downing Street signals that the threat of reprivatisation is very real. Selling Thames Water back off to US hedge funds and offshore billionaires after using public money to clear its debts is simply unacceptable. Burnham must decide: is he serving the public or the corporate interests Purnell used to represent?

Despite media claims to the contrary, Burnham doesn’t favour renationalisation; he favours privatisation with ‘greater public control’. The problem with ‘greater public control’ is that the public control we’ve had until now has completely failed to reign in these companies. In other words, it’s like multiplying by zero. It doesn’t matter how much you increase the multiplier, the result will always be nothing.

Thames Water issues massive bonuses to bosses… despite the ban on water bosses’ bonuses

Continuation

We can’t rule out that Burnham won’t renationalise Thames Water. After all, the company has messed up so badly it does look like the only realistic option. His words and deeds suggest the company won’t stay nationalised for long, though, and the long-running privatisation nightmare will continue.

Featured image via the Canary

By Willem Moore