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Politics · 10 July 2026

Water companies face new legal debt limits from ministers

Water companies face new legal debt limits from ministers

Image by panyastudio9 on Freepik

Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds is devising plans to compel water companies to maintain their debt under specified thresholds, or else incur legal penalties. New regulations aim to prevent corporate failures like Thames Water, which is currently struggling with £17.6 billion in debt. The new regulations will establish a mandatory limit on the proportion of a company's total value that can be attributed to its debt.

Reported by Guardian · How we write briefs

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