Lord Berkeley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Berkeley on 2016-04-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why water customers are being required to pay for the financing and legal fees of the shareholders of the consortium, Bazalgette Tunnel Ltd., which was awarded the licence for the Thames Tideway Tunnel.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

A water and sewerage company’s management and investors are responsible for determining the company’s capital and financing structure. This is an important feature of the water industry as it encourages investment by enabling a company to put in place a structure that works for it. However, accountability for a water or sewerage company’s capital and financing structure rests with investors and not customers.

Bazalgette Tunnel Ltd (trading as Tideway) is an infrastructure provider, appointed and licenced under the Water Industry (Specified Infrastructure Projects) (English Undertakers) Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/ 1582). Any costs incurred by Tidewayand its shareholders for its financing and other corporate arrangements are prevented under their project licence from being met by customers and are instead borne by the shareholders. This includes costs incurred both before and after licence award in August 2015.