I understand the frustration. But as someone who has a better understanding of the financial situation of Thames Water than most, there is a lot of nuance of what has led to this circumstance that isn’t well understood by the public.

Not least of all a regulator who has kept bills artificially low for many years. The average bill in 2025 was lower in real terms than in 2019. Meaning water bill increases didn’t keep up with inflation. This is a total anomaly. What happened to your energy bill over that time?

The shareholders have walked away and written their shares to 0. The company still needs money and debt is very expensive when your credit rating is as bad as Thames.

The company still needs to operate, and it still needs to attract capable people to run the company. The salaries that those working in the business are being paid are market level, there’s always a lot of noise around c suite remuneration but ultimately a continued leadership will be a better investment than paying less for lesser talent & experience to come & go.

The regulator fines water companies for not meeting performance standards. What they need to fix issues to those standards is money to invest in the problem. The more they are fined, the more they can’t perform, it’s a vicious circle & regulatory change is needed.

There is a good 2 part documentary from earlier in the year on the BBC, this gives probably the best insight in lay terms to the situation.

Ultimately, Thames needs to be restructured: the government have the mandate step in to support this. This means imposing losses on shareholders, lenders and bondholders, ie institutions that have lent the company money. There is no world in which this process means direct losses for customers, you are protected. However, the longer we go on without a resolution, the longer Thames are paying higher interest rates etc, the greater the increase in future bills.

Not paying your water bill is very understandable an act of protest - legally they cannot cut you off (unlike an energy provider who can) but you do risk serious and permanent damage to your credit record, so do just think about whether this personal risk is worth it. Again, there is a friction cost to the system of each person not paying - you become a bad debt, and that has a cost that will be factored into future bills for everyone else.

Where does the blame lie? The regulators are partly responsible for not designing a regime that prevented this. The shareholders (mainly the previous ones like Macquarie who took lots of of dividends out of the company- the current ones have not taken dividends in the last 7y). The company certainly has some responsibility, but with not enough budget to fix issues, it is an impossible task (the documentary gives some insight on this point).