Thames Water is to be investigated by the UK regulator over delays to more than 100 environmental improvement schemes that were due to be delivered by March this year, piling pressure on the indebted company as it struggles to fend off renationalisation.
Britain’s biggest water utility, which provides water and sewage services for about 16mn customers, had committed to delivering 812 environmental improvement schemes by March 2025, of which more than 100 are unlikely to be completed, the regulator said on Wednesday.
Lynn Parker, senior director for enforcement at Ofwat, said: “Customers have paid for Thames Water to carry out these essential environmental schemes. We take any indication that water companies are not meeting their legal obligations very seriously.”
Ofwat said that although the delays meant it would investigate, it did not immediately mean that Thames Water had breached obligations or that the probe would necessarily lead to a fine.