The water companies that provide clean water and remove waste for a quarter of the UK are, quite simply, drowning in debt.
When the company was privatized in 1989, it had no debt. However, it has borrowed heavily over the years and currently has debts of £15.4bn.
The bulk of that was added when Australian infrastructure bank Macquarie owned Thames Water, reaching more than £10bn when the company was sold in 2017.
Macquarie said it had invested billions of pounds into improving Thames water and wastewater infrastructure, but critics claim billions were taken from the company in loans and dividends.
Macquarie was sold to Kemble, who is now the ultimate owner of Thames Water. Kemble, which is part of one of the world's largest pension and sovereign wealth funds, recently defaulted on its debts and is now effectively insolvent.
This is significant because it was set to inject more than £3 billion of new funding into the Thames.
In March, Kemble shareholders called off a £500m down payment on a promised cash injection after regulator Ofwat rejected plans to raise customer bills by 40% above inflation over the next five years.
Thames has now returned to Ofwat with new proposals, including increased spending on environmental measures.
The company says it has enough funding to continue until May next year, but at some point Thames will need a fresh cash injection.
Whatever happens, water supplies to Thames Water customers will continue as normal.
