Consumers will not be hit with higher bills if the UK government takes Thames Water into temporary public ownership to tackle its rising debt.
In an interview with Sky News, health minister Neil O'Brien said there were contingency plans in place to make sure people would continue to have access to water and that their bills wouldn't change n the event that the government did step in to bail out the embattled company.
Thames Water "are still in the process of finding further resources from their own shareholders and that's the first place they should look to, obviously," he said.
"Of course the government does have contingency plans if this does become a problem.
"Absolutely nothing is going to happen in terms of either their bills or their access to water, we have contingency plans - like we do in all of these network utilities - to manage any difficult situations."
Thames Water said it was working "constructively" to secure additional funding after receiving £500 million (€579 million) from shareholders in March, as the Conservative government drew up emergency plans that would see the company be nationalised for a short time as it attempts to pay down its £14 billion (€16.2 billion) debt pile.
"Thames Water received the expected £500m of new funding from its shareholders in March 2023 and is continuing to work constructively with its shareholders in relation to the further equity funding expected to be required to support Thames Water's turnaround and investment plans," the company said in a statement.
"Ofwat is being kept fully informed on progress of the company's turnaround and engagement with shareholders."
Nationalisation fears for Thames Water as debts soar
