For their next session with Thames Water, the MPs on the environment select committee should summon the people who really matter: the shareholders who must find £3bn-plus in coming years if they wish to keep their over-indebted, underperforming and waterlogged company afloat.
The committee may need a bigger room because the ownership collective is not small. It takes in two Canadian pension funds (with holdings of 32% and 9%), the pension fund for UK university academics (20%), the governments of Abu Dhabi (10%) and China (9%), the manager of BT’s pension fund (9%) and an Australian fund (5%). The first question to such a gathering would be simple. Are you trying to hold the regulator, Ofwat, to ransom before you commit more cash?
