THAMES WATER’s debts have ballooned to £16.8 billion and it made a loss of £1.65bn in the year to March, the company revealed today, sparking fresh calls for renationalisation.

Appearing before the Commons environment committee, chief executive Chris Weston admitted that the company was “extremely stressed” and would take “at least a decade to turn around.”

Britain’s largest water supplier also revealed a sharp increase in pollution incidents over the past year.

Gary Carter, a national officer at water industry union GMB, said: “Thames Water is drowning under a mountain of debt.

“Hiking customer bills has led to a rise in operating profit, money that should go on investment but is being swallowed up by monstrous loans needed to keep the company afloat.

“While Thames lurches from crisis to crisis, the solution is clear: it must be taken back into public ownership, with workers’ terms, conditions and pensions protected.”

We Own It campaign group director Cat Hobbs said: “It’s never been clearer that Thames Water is dead in the water. 

“It’s astonishing that the government has allowed this privatised failure to stagger on for so long. 

“Environment Secretary Steve Reed must immediately cut the debt in half by taking Thames into special administration and then permanent public ownership. 

“Stop forcing 16 million so-called ‘customers,’ who have no choice, to pay the price for a bailout. Nine out of 10 countries run water in public ownership and England can do the same. 

“Thames Water could be accountable to households, workers [and] anti-sewage and environmental groups, instead of [to] shareholders on the other side of the world.”

The water firm remains locked in talks over a rescue funding agreement with senior creditors after private equity firm KKR pulled out of plans last month to pump in a much-needed £4bn.

Today, the company’s results raised doubts that the creditors and industry watchdog Ofwat will be able to strike the deal, which could ultimately lead to a state rescue.

The firm added that it had seen Ofwat performance penalties increase to £88.2 million in 2024-25 from £56.9m the previous year as it missed regulatory targets.

Thames Water was fined a record £122.7m in May after it was found to have broken rules on sewage treatment and dividend payouts.