Thames Water Awaits Burnham as First Public-Ownership Test
Debt-laden Thames Water, around £20bn in the red and serving 16 million customers, is shaping up as the earliest test of Mr Burnham’s pledge for “greater public control” of essential services. He has said there is a strong case for public ownership; the company’s lenders say they want to see what a Burnham government intends before providing more funding.
Mr Burnham has floated a ten-year programme of taking firms into public control as they fail or their franchises end, pointing to Greater Manchester’s publicly controlled buses as a model. The immediate choice is between a temporary special administration and costlier full nationalisation, which could require legislation and a collision with litigious creditors. Thames Water’s chief executive, Chris Weston, has said lenders “want to see what the new Burnham government thinks before providing more funding”. Estimates for taking the whole sector into public hands run to tens of billions of pounds. Watch whether the incoming team triggers special administration in his first weeks.