The struggling water company has asked regulator Ofwat to refer its ‘final determination’ to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for a redetermination. The firm wants permission to raise bills from 2025 to 2030 by more than the 35% agreed by Ofwat last year.
The company’s board has complained that the price hikes already agreed do not “appropriately support the investment and improvement that is required for Thames Water to deliver for its customers, communities and the environment for the next five years”.
Adrian Montague, chair of Thames Water, said: “We have taken the decision to refer our final determination to the Competition and Markets Authority in the interests of our customers and the environment. We are focused on putting the business on a long-term stable footing so we can succeed in our turnaround, and build and maintain an infrastructure that supports growth and can withstand the effects of climate change.
“We put forward a realistic business plan for 2025-2030 that addressed our customers’ and stakeholders’ priorities such as providing safe and resilient water supplies and improving performance. After careful consideration, our analysis shows that our final determination for the next regulatory period will continue to impact our ability to fund the improvements our customers and the environment so rightly want and deserve.”
The news will come as a blow to Thames Water customers, many of whom have been without water this week after a major leak in South London. The issue affected about 10,000 homes and came just days after Thames Water contacted customers to tell them their bills would be going up from April.
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Thames Water has been accused of dodging statutory compensation payments to customers for previous incidents, and not providing adequate bottled water to affected homes during the current supply interruption.
Feargal Sharkey, singer and water campaigner, posted on X (formerly Twitter): “Thames Water shows two fingers to customers. Having spent decades ram raiding customers[‘] bank accounts for billions [of] £, loaded the company with £19bn in debt, demanding another £3bn in debt, dumped billions of litres of sewage into rivers, over abstracted chalk streams[,] they’re now demanding and appealed to the CMA that they should be allowed to increase bills by 53%.”
