Customers don't want Thames Water to be saved with a debt deal – they want it to be nationalised

A majority of Thames Water customers want the water regulator Ofwat to reject a controversial deal to write down the company’s debts which would allow it to keep polluting rivers until 2040. At the same time, more than two thirds of customers want the company to be nationalised, new polling has found.

Thames Water is currently negotiating over the deal, under which there would be no “full return to legal, regulatory and environmental compliance” until 2035-40, in a bid to save the company. Amid this, customers’ water bills have increased by a third and the company’s debt has grown to nearly £20 billion.

It’s the latest twist in a saga which has seen court battles over the potential nationalisation of the embattled utility company.

Sophie Conquest, lead campaigner at We Own It, which carried out the polling of 1,000 Thames water customers and has also been challenging the bailout deal, said the research gave proof that customers wanted Thames Water run in the public sector.

“People are absolutely sick of paying more and more for a broken water system, all while watching as shareholders continue to extract eyewatering profits,” said Conquest.

“If this government is serious about tackling the cost of living crisis, they must cut water bills. Public ownership would stop huge sums of money from leaking out of our water system in the form of shareholder payouts, meaning reduce costs for bill-payers.”

Read more:

• Thames Water wants permission to pollute Britain’s rivers until 2040. No, seriously
• I’m the HR director of a water company. We’ve got to make some changes in the world
• Our water is filthy. It’s time to float the idea of renationalisation

As battles rage over the future of the company, which has accrued its debt since privatisation under Margret Thatcher’s government, more than half of customers say a bill strike would be reasonable.

There are also signs the future of Thames Water could become a hot-button electoral issue, with a third of those polled saying the issue could affect their vote at the next election.

Sewage spills fell in the six months to September 2025, but the company was also hit with a record Oftwat fine of £122.7 million in May 2025, related to spills and shareholder payouts.

“The public have rightly had enough. They want the water industry to be a functioning and affordable essential service, not a bargaining chip for creditors to extract more money from bill-payers,” Mathew Lawrence, director of the Common Wealth think tank, told Big Issue. 

“The best long term solution is to return Thames Water back to public hands. As our research has shown, water could be restored to public ownership at minimal cost through special administration”.

Turning the company around will take a decade, Thames Water’s bosses said in December, while its CEO Chris Weston has said a “market-led solution” is the best option.

Alongside bill hikes, the company also placed a greater number of customers onto social tariffs, including a pilot scheme which moved some onto the cheaper fares without them knowing they might be eligible for support.

“It is time for Thames Water, in its current form, to be put out of its misery. The government must place the company into special administration and ensure it is owned and run for public benefit, not for private gain,” said James Wallace, CEO of River Action.

Big Issue has contacted Thames Water for comment.

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