Thames Water has warned that the taxpayer faces at least 18 months of having to fund Britain’s largest water supplier and sewerage company if the High Court stands in the way of a £3 billion short-term refinancing of the business and lets it fall into insolvency.
Thames was at the High Court on Tuesday to argue for bridging finance agreed with the majority of its creditors without which it will not survive past the end of January 2025.
“Should we give the group temporary liquidity … or should we pull down the shutters now?” Tom Smith KC, the head of South Square chambers representing Thames Water, told the court.
Outside the court there were demonstrations. Charlie Maynard, the Liberal Democrat MP representing David Cameron’s old