The Labour government’s first international investment summit arrives next week, a chance for ministers to advertise the splendid opportunities available to global funds under the UK’s new pro-growth, mission-led, market-friendly administration. It is also a moment for those global investors to belly-ache about Ofwat, the water regulator.
In fact, they’ve started already. Here comes the Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund with a write-off of its entire 9.9% stake in Thames Water, the over-indebted big beast of the sector. Aside from Thames’s “operational performance” (well, quite), Abu Dhabi blamed “the challenging regulatory environment”, a nod to the familiar grumble that Ofwat has somehow made English water companies “uninvestable” by refusing to allow customers’ bills to be hiked to the moon, just halfway to it.
