Creditors Vote Thursday on £2.4bn Thames Water Rescue Loan
The cash would keep the utility running into autumn 2027 as its current funding runs dry.
By Rafael Bailey ·
Thames Water has run short of cash, and its creditors meet Thursday to decide whether to lend it another £2.4bn. The company said in October that it could not lock in a longer-term debt deal before its money runs out, a point it expects to reach by the end of 2026 or the start of 2027.
The consortium voting is called London & Valley Water. A yes would lift the company's total funding facility to £5.4bn, enough to cover operations until autumn 2027. Class A creditors in the group include BlackRock, Elliott Management and Silver Point Capital. They provided a £3bn loan last year at 9.75% interest. Thames Water has drawn £2.65bn of that facility, and the creditors have approved 15 consent requests from the company so far.
Thames Water says customers pay no interest on the existing £3bn loan. The campaign group We Own It ran the numbers on a repeat deal: £40 per household in interest if the new loan is passed to bills, or £454 per household if the full amount is included. London & Valley Water said those costs would not appear on household bills and that the class A creditors absorb them, with no taxpayer money involved. A Thames Water spokesperson said the liquidity lets investment continue while the company seeks a recapitalisation, and that bills are set by Ofwat.
The utility serves 16 million customers in London and the Thames Valley. Its debt stands at about £20bn, and its shareholders left in 2024, putting creditors in control. Since privatisation, £11.9bn has come out of Thames Water, said Sophie Conquest, lead campaigner at We Own It. "They have already had more than enough of our money," she said, calling for special administration and then permanent public ownership.
Andy Burnham is weighing a creditor takeover, which would write off fines and scale back environmental commitments, against nationalisation or another form of state control. Some Labour politicians and environmental campaigners want special administration instead. One option under review would turn about £100m of outstanding fines into a government stake. Charlie Maynard, the Liberal Democrat MP for Witney, who lost a 2025 court challenge to the £3bn loan, said the government has had more than two years to decide. Prof Dieter Helm of Oxford said further loans only delay an inevitable special administration.
The vote is set for Thursday. No date has been announced for a decision by Burnham on the wider questions of ownership.
