editor faisal islam. this is clearly a mess but the expectation in financial circles is that shareholders will provide the funds to keep thames water going. but the question is how did this come about in an industry that should be so simple, providing a product that everybody needs, and provided the monopolies of several million customers with no competition. and the answer is in hugely complicated structures, huge debts, and lots of regulation. the boss of thames water, sarah bentley, abruptly stood down on tuesday. she was battling to turn around the company after a legacy of under investment. let s discuss what s at stake with dr kate bayliss from the centre for water and development at soas university in london. thank you for being on the programme. faisal islam there talking and touching on some of theissues talking and touching on some of the issues why thames water is where it is. can you elaborate on that, please? on that, please? yes, well, thames on that, please?
has to provide drinking and waste water and it does not have any competitors, but as you say, it has amassed debts of £14 billion over the years and this has to be serviced. it costs the costs are rising because of inflation. interest rates are rising. cost of servicing the debt has gone up. and also, it has to pay each year in investment, it is under fire for leaky pipes, sewage flowing into rivers, not meeting its performance targets, and of course hefty fines in the process. it needs to raise new money. it has already had half £1 billion from shareholders and it needs to raise in the region of another billion and it has a debt repayment coming up in the next year. it has to try and persuade its shareholders that this turnaround plan under the new ceo, sarah bentley, who left rather abruptly yesterday, that the plan is working, and for them to stump up and i think what has brought this story to the fourie is news that the government is looking at options. contingency p
wicketkeeperjonny bairstow, who then carried the protester off. the second was wrestled to the ground by security staff. the delay was about five minutes and three arrests were made. just stop oil protesters have disrupted other sporting events in england this year, including the premiership rugby final and the world snooker championship. megan rapinoe says the world cup next month will be a transformational moment in women s sport, with the game enjoying a period of major growth and with her usa team s successful fight for equal pay ending successfully last yea r. the previous tournament in 2019 was overshadowed by the uswnt s dispute with their own federation and they won a second world cup in a row despite it. but as rapinoe and the squad chase a third trophy in succession, she says the event in australia and new zealand will take place in a unique context. the sort of acceptable cognitive distant ants and just denial of what we actually are and i think those days are read
pressure as well. the main problem is that the company has nearly £14 billion of debt, so it has a substantial interest bill to pay every year. that interest bill is currently going up because interest rates are going up. some interest rate payments are related to inflation, which is very high. at the same time, it s having to spend over £1 billion a year in infrastructure, water mains, stopping leakage and there s a regulatory review coming up in a few years which may mean it will have to invest even more. thames water needs to raise money from somewhere but if it can t get it, the government is looking at options. we need to make sure thames water as an entity survives. there s a lot of work the government is doing on resolving sewage. up until now, the regulator has been focused on keeping consumer bills down but there is a lot of infrastructure work that needs to take place and we need that entity to survive. in a statement, thames water says it s working constructively