Thames Water will run out of cash by March without £3bn emergency funding

Thames Water supplies 16 million customers across London and the Thames Valley. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Thames Water has said it will run out of cash by next March if it fails to secure a £3bn financial lifeline, as it admitted its sewage spills had risen sharply.

Britain’s biggest water supplier said on Tuesday that all of its funds may be “exhausted” if it failed to secure the emergency funding from its creditors, putting it at risk of temporary nationalisation.