Early last year, regulator Ofwat at last woke up to the exploitation of the complex financial structures around our water companies. Holding companies had been allowed to borrow against water firms’ assets to increase dividends to shareholders.
In one year (2007) Thames paid out more than £650 million in dividends, even though its profit was £241 million. Sixteen years later Ofwat finally moved to stop the companies paying “themselves” in this way. Or it thought it had.
