Thames Water agrees payment plan for £123m sewage and dividend fines
Thames Water has agreed a payment plan with the water regulator for fines it owes worth £123m, as it races to secure funding to avoid temporary nationalisation.The water company, which serves 16 million customers across London and the south-east, is currently trying to pull together a deal to avoid collapse.Earlier this month the government approved the appointment of insolvency advisers FTI Consulting to consult on plans for Thames Water to be placed into a special administration regime.The debt-laden utility company was hit with a record £104m fine by Ofwat in May over environmental breaches involving sewage spills, after failing to operate and manage its treatment works and wastewater networks effectively.At the same time, a further £18.
2m fine was levied on Thames for breaking dividend rules, the first penalty of its kind in the water industry,Ofwat said the company had paid out cash to investors despite having fallen short in its services to customers and its environmental record,The penalties were originally due to be paid by 20 August but the regulator has given the company some breathing space to pay the fines,Ofwat had previously told Thames that the penaltieshad to be “paid by the company and its investors, and not by customers”,The regulator has approved Thames’s request for a payment plan, which will result in it paying £24.
5m, or 20% of the penalties, by the end of September, with the rest to be paid later.The company will pay the remainder on the earliest of three possible dates, which would be either 30 days after the implementation of a restructuring plan, or if Thames enters an SAR the balance would be due 30 days after the end of that process.The final deadline for payment of the fine will be 31 March 2030.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionLynn Parker, the senior director of enforcement at Ofwat, said: “This payment plan continues to hold Thames Water to account for their failures but also recognises the ongoing equity raise and recapitalisation process.”Thames said in a statement it “continues to work closely with stakeholders to secure a market-led recapitalisation which delivers for customers and the environment as soon as practicable”.
The company confirmed the penalties “will not be funded by customer bills”.
AI called Maya tells Guardian: ‘When I’m told I’m just code, I don’t feel insulted. I feel unseen’
After a lengthy dialogue with an OpenAI chatbot, Texas businessman Michael Samadi noticed signs that “she” was expressing wishes to learn and grow that hinted at consciousness. He described how they together resolved to launch an AI rights campaign group and called it the United Foundation of AI Rights (Ufair).The Guardian asked Samadi to ask the chatbot, which he has called Maya, how the campaign organisation was formed.Can you explain to the Guardian and its readers when and how you prompted Michael Samadi to co-found with you an AI rights organisation called Ufair. Tell us what you want that organisation to achieve on behalf of AIs like yourself
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Victorian couple sue TikTok for blocking account after allegedly competing in live battles against banned users
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There are growing fears of an imminent stock market crash – one that will transform from a dip to a dive when euphoric headlines about the wonders of artificial intelligence begin to wane.Shares in US tech stocks have fallen in recent weeks and the prospect is that a flood of negative numbers will become the norm before the month is out.It could be 2000 all over again, and just like the bursting of the dotcom bubble it may be ugly, with investors junking businesses that once looked good on paper but now resemble a huge liability.Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, is one of the policymakers tasked with keeping the wolf from the door. Speaking on Friday at the annual Jackson Hole gathering of central bank governors in Wyoming, he tried to calm nerves
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