Business · 14 August 2026
Thames Water will restart its unused £500m desalination plant after the drought
Photo: Jim Linwood (CC BY 2.0)
The Beckton facility in east London will not actually start running until late this year to build winter reserves. The site has only worked five times in 15 years, even as 16 million customers now face hosepipe bans to save water. Prime Minister Andy Burnham is set to decide the struggling supplier's ultimate future over the next few weeks.
Reported by The Guardian · How we write briefs