–Thames Water appears to be acting against 2030 sustainable development goals, including the need to reduce poverty

Opinion by Mathew Carr

Dec. 3-6, 2023 — I’ve been getting increasingly angry about the behaviour of Thames Water’s multi-level “cascading” bankers.

As reported on this weekend’s front page of the Financial Times, executives, board members, bankers have loaded the water monopoly with £18 billion of debt — an additional £3 billion in the past 18 months or so.

Corporations are behaving like Israel in Gaza … in using water as a weapon.

Londoners and other Brits will have to repay the debt because they can’t really choose not to pay for water. The company is the UK’s biggest water utility.

The behavior appears to be fraudulent because the company was pretending the latest round of debt was equity when it wasn’t.

The state should nationalise the company and seek compensation for the people from the holders of equity and their greedy banks.

This is not sustainable business … it’s exploitation of a natural monopoly … pure and simple.

The latest interest rate being charged is 8% — which seems above market and, if so, it’s quite anticompetitive.

Enough is enough.

Here is the new estimate from Thames Water of my increasing costs (we live in London) — up 31% to about £520 per year, even though my family’s average daily water use is 13% below the “typical” level

This comparison arrived in the post two days after we published the story above

Drowning in debt