11 Dec 2024
One of England’s top-rated water companies is using an accounting trick to artificially inflate its balance sheet by more than a billion pounds, BBC Panorama has discovered. Severn Trent Water claims that an investment is worth £1.68bn in its accounts, when in reality it has no value to the overall business. The made-up […]
27 Nov 2024
COP29 ended with a deal in which rich countries promised to raise $300bn a year by 2035 tripling climate finance support for developing countries. However, many poorer countries were left outraged by the deal, and the financial settlement also fails to consider the effect of inflation. Photo credit: Markus Spiske The UK government […]
30 Oct 2024
Thames Water has secured a £3 billion loan, ensuring the company can continue to operate into 2025. The fresh funds are meant to act as “liquidity bridge” to “stabilise the business” and give it time to secure long-term investment, its chief executive, Chris Weston, said on Friday. It will further balloon its operating company’s debt […]
25 Sep 2024
Reported in City AM Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund has reportedly told the government that it will not invest in regulated UK water, electricity and gas utilities due to unpredictable rules on infrastructure, in a blow for Labour’s economic strategy. GIC, the world’s seventh-largest sovereign wealth fund with more than $800bn (£600bn) in assets, declared its […]
31 Jul 2024
One of the major credit rating companies, Fitch Ratings, has warned that some UK water companies will “find it challenging” to maintain existing ratings for AMP8 In a new report, Fitch says the Draft Determinations recently announced by UK water regulator Ofwat for the AMP8 April 2025 to March 2030 investment period, introduces several significant changes […]
01 May 2024
Bloomberg reports that the Thames Water Crisis Risks £100 Billion UK Investment Plan, and that creditors warn Thames writedowns will push up borrowing costs. The debt crisis at Thames Water is jeopardizing £100 billion ($125 billion) of potential investment required over the next five years to mend Britain’s crumbling utilities infrastructure. Water companies have promised […]
26 Mar 2024
Flooding is the number one natural hazard in the UK, costing billions of pounds each year. The risk and damages to the UK from flooding is only expected to increase due to Climate Change. Natural Flood Management (NFM) is a critical mechanism to help reduce the risk of flooding, while delivering environmental benefits such as carbon sequestration, […]
06 Mar 2024
The government has announced that 19 councils are set to be granted exceptional financial support for the next financial year. In principle support for these councils for 2024-25 is worth around £1.5bn, enabling them to use capital receipts from asset sales or borrowing to fund day-to-day costs up to that amount. Further in principle support for […]
