Thames Water

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Thames Water
Type	Public
Founded	1989
Headquarters	Reading, Berkshire
Industry	Water supply and sewerage services
Employees	5,000
Parent	Kemble Water
Website	www.thameswater.co.uk

Thames Water, known originally as the Thames Water Authority and after privatisation as Thames Water Utilities Limited, is the utility responsible for water supply and waste water treatment in parts of Greater London, Surrey, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, and the Thames Valley in the United Kingdom. Originally it was also responsible for managing the rivers and water catchments of the area, and was the navigation authority of the non-tidal River Thames, but these responsibilities ceased with privatisation.

The headquarters of Thames Water are located adjacent to Reading Bridge on the River Thames in Reading.

1 History
2 Privatisation
3 Criticism
4 Recent achievements
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

The Thames Water Authority was founded in 1973, under the terms of the Water Act 1973. It was a successor to several statutory water supply and catchment area management bodies, including:

The Metropolitan Water Board, responsible for water supply and drainage in London.
The Thames Conservancy, responsible for managing the non-tidal River Thames.
The Lee Conservancy
Croydon Corporation
Epsom and Ewell Corporation
Swindon Corporation
Watford Corporation
Cotswold Water Board
Middle Thames Water Board
Oxfordshire and District Water Board
Thames Valley Water Board
West Surrey Water Board
Mid Southern Water Company
South West Suburban Water Company
The New River Water Company

[edit] Privatisation

Thames Water was privatised in 1989, with transfer of its regulatory, river management and navigation responsibilities to the National Rivers Authority, which later became part of the Environment Agency. In 2001, Thames Water plc was acquired by the German utility company RWE. On 17 October 2006, RWE announced that it will sell Thames Water to Kemble Water Limited for £ 4.8 billion (since Thames Water has a pro forma net debt of £3.2 billion this implies an enterprise value of £8.0 billion)^[1]. Kemble is a consortium led by an investment fund run by the Australian Macquarie Bank. Australian investment funds already have interests in South East Water and Mid Kent Water.

[edit] Criticism

Thames Water has been repeatedly criticised for the amount of water that leaks from its pipes by the industry regulator Ofwat and fined for this. (As of June 2006, Thames Water missed its target for reducing leakages for the third year in a row.) [1] The figure for May 2006 was nearly 900 megalitres per day.

In July 2006, instead of a fine, which would have gone "to the exchequer" the company was required to spend an extra £150 million on repairs. [2]

In June 2006 the firm also announced a 31% rise in pre-tax profits to £346.5m. Jeremy Pelczer, Thames Water's former chief executive, noted that "In the face of a challenging year for Thames Water and the whole sector, we are pleased to deliver a good set of results." [3]

The Consumer Council, a customers' group, accused Thames Water for continuing to miss their targets for the past five years. According to Consumer Council spokesman Andrew Marsh, "They [Thames Water] are making big profits and there's a credibility gap between making large profits and asking customers to save water. People are paying more for their water bills and have every right to expect what they are paying for, which is a service that includes all the benefits the company has promised to deliver." [4].

[edit] Recent achievements

In June 2007, Thames Water announced it had met and exceeded the leakage targets set by the water regulator OFWAT, the first time it had done so since 2000. It is currently on track to meet the leakage target for 2007/08. Since being sold by RWE to Kemble Water in December 2006, the company has refocused its efforts on improving its operational performance and this year has announced the largest ever capital investment (£1 billion)of any UK water company.

Thames Water is responsible for some of the largest civil engineering programmes in Europe, including the £2.2billion Thames Tideway Tunnel (due to be completed in 2020) and the proposed reservoir at Abingdon in Oxfordshire, which is due to be the largest enclosed reservoir in the UK.