Thames Water Must Meet Its Obligations

5.17.49pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 25th Sep 2006

Local Lib Dem Sue Doughty has called for Thames Water to get its act together or face being turned into a not-for-profit company.

Speaking at the Lib Dem conference in Brighton she said "It is wrong that Thames Water is putting profit before sorting out leakage. Year after year we have seen the plans for a massive new reservoir at Abingdon being rolled out and now a proposal for a desert strength desalination plant in East London.

"During the recent drought, local people went to extraordinary lengths to save water while Thames got away with failing to meet its leakage target. It's time that the government and the regulator got to grips with this company which expects us to do the work to save water while they make profits. If they can't manage better than this, the company should be broken up to enable them to concentrate on the reliable supply of water."