Closing post
Time to wrap up…
Thames Water reported its first half earnings this morning, warning that crisis talks to secure its future with lenders are taking “longer than expected” and will drag into 2026 as it faces the prospect of a collapse into government control.
Britain’s biggest water company on Wednesday said it had swung to a profit of £414m for the six months to September helped by bills rising by nearly a third, after losing £149m in the same period in 2024.
Despite the jump in reported profits, the company said there was “material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt” on its status as a going concern. A collapse into government control under a special administration regime (SAR) – a form of temporary nationalisation – “could occur in the very near term” if it is unable to agree the terms of a formal takeover by its controlling lenders.
HSBC has appointed the former KPMG partner Brendan Nelson as its chair after a prolonged search process that left one of the world’s biggest banks without a permanent executive in the top role for months.
The decision to appoint Nelson, who has been serving as interim chair, came as a surprise, after a protracted hunt for a permanent successor for Mark Tucker which involved courting external candidates including the former chancellor George Osborne and the head of Goldman Sachs’ Asia-Pacific division, Kevin Sneader.
HSBC failed to find a permanent chair before Tucker departed at the end of September, raising questions about the succession plans and the board’s effectiveness, having first announced his decision to leave in May.
Elsewhere, the Jaguar Land Rover design boss behind the Range Rover and the polarising Jaguar relaunch has abruptly departed the business just four months after its new chief executive took charge.
Gerry McGovern left the role of chief creative officer on Monday after 20 years at the business in which he oversaw the design of some of the company’s most successful cars as well as the launch of a new-look, pink electric Jaguar that drew the ire of Donald Trump.
Britain’s largest carmaker appointed PB Balaji as chief executive in August. Balaji, an Indian national, was previously the chief financial officer of Tata Motors, the Indian owner of JLR.
Updated
For the second time this week, the Treasury chief secretary James Murray has been on his feet in the Commons answering questions about the budget process and the Office for Budget Responsibility.
On Monday Murray was interrupted by news of the resignation of Richard Hughes as the OBR’s chair.
Nothing quite so dramatic happened during Wednesday’s questioning, though Murray did confirm that his boss Rachel Reeves had approved the decision by the OBR to release details of the private forecasts which it gave to the Treasury in the build up to the budget.
Reports overnight had suggested that James Bowler, the most senior civil servant at the Treasury, had sanctioned the move personally in what could have been interpreted as an undermining of the chancellor’s authority. However Murray insisted this was not the case.
He said:
The chancellor was aware of that letter. She was content for it to be published and she agreed this with the permanent secretary.
Meanwhile he also confirmed that the Treasury had begun a leak inquiry into how the Financial Times discovered on 14 November that Reeves had dropped a plan to raise income tax rates - a story which temporarily caused bond yields to spike.
