Thames Water crisis deepens as shareholders withhold new equity

Thames Water's shareholders declared the UK's largest water utility 'uninvestible' under the regulator's proposed terms in March 2024, withholding a planned equity injection and pushing the company — serving about a quarter of England's population, with a debt pile above £15 billion — into a prolonged restructuring saga.

The crisis became the stress test for England's privatized-utility model: bills, sewage spills, dividend history and the special-administration backstop all entered mainstream political debate, with consequences for the entire sector's cost of capital and investment plans.