Water should be a simple business - why isn't it?

In commercial terms, water should be a simple business - everyone needs to buy it for survival.

Many other developed nations chose not to privatise water supply. Indeed our near-neighbours Ireland only began charging households for water within the past decade. Thames Water stands out because of the high level of debt at 80% of its value, close to regulatory limits and well above other water companies. It is joint bottom of the standards league tables for leaks, sewage pollution and water treatment.

The previous owners, Australian financiers Macquarie, left the company £10bn in debt having extracted healthy dividends. All of this was perfectly allowed in the system, but were partly a product of that era of ultra-low interest rates.Thames boss Sarah Bentley stepped down last week after just two years in the job

Indeed, water companies excelled at gaming the regulations that existed to extract the most short-term profits. In 2010 the coalition government also commissioned a report that channelled water companies' complaints about Ofwat's regulatory touch being onerous.

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