Thames Water has been ordered to update its service commitment plan by the regulator Ofwat after a minister said the company’s performance in regards to sewage dumping and serving customers was “completely unacceptable”.
Robbie Moore, the floods minister, said Britain’s biggest water supplier was “under no illusions over the scale of the challenge” as MPs heard that Thames had allowed waterways to become polluted and homes to be flooded with sewage.
At a Westminster Hall debate on the performance of the company in Oxfordshire, Moore said: “Ofwat have directed Thames Water to produce a service commitment plan.
“This will require Thames Water to publicly commit to a plan for how they will start to turn their performance around. Please be assured that regulators and the government will be scrutinising these plans in detail to make sure every possible is being done to get the company back on track in terms of service delivery, environmental performance and ensuring that the customers get what they quite rightly deserve in terms of good supply.”
Debt-laden Thames has been repeatedly criticised for its record on sewage dumping and leakage, while fears have been raised about its financial position after auditors said it could run out of money by April.
Thames last published a commitment plan in December, which was updated in January. “Our underlying performance is improving in some areas, but deteriorating asset health, climatic events and cost pressures, means our current performance is falling short of expectations,” the plan said.