Ministerial statement on Wednesday, 17 June 2026, in the House of Lords, led by Baroness Hayman of Ullock.

Thames Water

Lords statement regarding the position of Thames Water and the proposed recapitalisation package under consideration.

Secondary information

Type: Parliamentary proceeding
Reference: 857 cc245-257
Session: 2026-27
Department: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Chamber / Committee: House of Lords chamber
Related items: Water Sector
Tuesday, 16 June 2026
Written statements
House of Lords
Proceeding contributions: Lord Roborough | 857 cc246-8 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for answering on this Statement in your Lordships’ House. Thames W...; Baroness Grender | 857 c249 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, I want to return to a point I raised in this House only last week when I asked whether ...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 cc249-251 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their questions on this Statement. There are quite a lot
...; Baroness McIntosh of Pickering | 857 c251 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, the Minister will be aware that it is not necessarily just ownership of a water company...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c252 (Link to this contribution)
Clearly, we need to see the water Bill to see the detail on that and many other issues that peopl...; Lord Birt | 857 c252 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, the dire position of Thames Water is, above all, a regulatory failure. Does the Ministe...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c252 (Link to this contribution)
I suggest to the noble Lord that the fact that we are talking about removing Ofwat and bringing i...; Lord Cryer | 857 c252 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, when the water industry was privatised over 30 years ago, it was almost entirely debt-f...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c252 (Link to this contribution)
The detail of the regulator will be in the new Bill. The noble Lord has mentioned this to me a nu...; Lord Redesdale | 857 c252 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, I declare my interest as set out in the register. Thames Water bills went up around 40%...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c253 (Link to this contribution)
My understanding is that that is not the assessment by Ofwat at the current time. However, the no...; Lord Redwood | 857 c253 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, do the Government agree that Thames Water needs to put in a lot of new, larger waste pi...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c253 (Link to this contribution)
On the basis that I do not know how many pipes, what size reservoir and where it would be, it is ...; Lord Cromwell | 857 c253 (Link to this contribution)
I agree with the Minister that debt overburdening of the company was a major cause of its problem...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c253 (Link to this contribution)
The noble Lord is correct that how debt was leveraged was unsustainable. It has led us to a situa...; Lord Sikka | 857 cc253-4 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, on 9 June the Minister said that
“we consider the regulated capital value of the ...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c254 (Link to this contribution)
It is because that is the generally understood figure. That is why we go with that figure.; Baroness Coffey | 857 c254 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, the action by the Secretary of State in her letter is good. I fully support what she wr...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c254 (Link to this contribution)
That is an interesting point and it is being discussed. Thames Water is huge and has quite differ...; Baroness Butler-Sloss | 857 c254 (Link to this contribution)
Like many other people in this House, I am a Thames Water consumer, so I am particularly interest...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c254 (Link to this contribution)
As I said, we have the water Bill coming through. These issues are going to be put forward in a w...; Lord Bellingham | 857 c254 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, surely if a company is highly profitable, no capitalist—or even trade unionist, for tha...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c255 (Link to this contribution)
I absolutely agree that it is unethical to raise money to pay yourself bonuses when you have not ...; Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court | 857 c255 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, I share the Minister’s frustration and welcome the Government’s efforts to grip the iss...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c255 (Link to this contribution)
We do not want to put this on to consumers, because it just does not seem to be the right approac...; Baroness Boycott | 857 c255 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, picking up on what the noble Baroness said about reservoirs, at the launch of the CCC a...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c255 (Link to this contribution)
The Government are very keen to crack on with building new reservoirs, which are an absolutely cr...; Baroness Wheatcroft | 857 c255 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, given that Thames Water was saddled with unsustainable debts and a very poor level of i...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c256 (Link to this contribution)
I can see where the noble Baroness is coming from. The difficulty is that if a company continues ...; Lord Redwood | 857 c256 (Link to this contribution)
Pursuant to the Minister’s kind reply to me, I welcome the Government’s wish to have more reservo...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c256 (Link to this contribution)
I know the Abingdon area applications very well. In a previous life I worked in communications on...; Baroness Coffey | 857 c256 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, part of the reason why there have not been quite so many new reservoirs in such a long ...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c256 (Link to this contribution)
That is an interesting suggestion by the noble Baroness and one that I am happy to take back to t...; Lord Sentamu | 857 c256 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, if Thames Water was a school, it would already have been put under special measures. Yo...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c256 (Link to this contribution)
I am sure the noble and right reverend Lord will be pleased to hear that something drastic is abo...; Lord Redesdale | 857 c257 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, I must apologise to the House. Apparently, Members have to be more specific about their...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c257 (Link to this contribution)
The simple answer is that we are considering all possibilities and eventualities. We want to have...; Lord Bailey of Paddington | 857 c257 (Link to this contribution)
My Lords, when we eventually get to the point where we have a new regulator, what will be done to...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c257 (Link to this contribution)
I am not in a position to comment on chumminess, because I do not know the people involved. The w...; Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd | 857 c257 (Link to this contribution)
One of the problems in regulation is that those who are regulated are able to pay substantially g...; Baroness Hayman of Ullock | 857 c257 (Link to this contribution)
One of the key reasons why we are in such a mess in the water industry is because the amount of d...
Subjects: Consumers Debts Capital investment Finance Infrastructure Ofwat Protection Pollution Pollution control Standards Water Thames Water Water charges Sewage Water supply Water treatment London & Valley Water
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Parliamentary proceeding on hansard.parliament.uk

Thames Water

Secondary information

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