According to The Guardian, the prime minister and chancellor have been briefed by Whitehall officials that the poor state of Thames Water presents a “critical risk” to the country.

Fears about the company go beyond its precarious financial position and include the management of sites that provide drinking water and sewage treatment for millions of customers across the capital and the Thames valley.

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves were first to be briefed on the issue. They were warned by civil servants that the dire state of Thames’s infrastructure is one of the most urgent problems facing the new government, according to sources.

The condition of Coppermills, a vast water treatment works in north-east London that serves as many as 3 million people, is particularly alarming, ministers and aides have been told. The site is classed among the UK’s most important pieces of national infrastructure.

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See also Rise in sewage pollution from Thames Water’s ageing treatment works