Growing concern around Thames Water’s ability to handle its 14-billion pound debt has led the government to prepare for its possible collapse

It’s the UK’s biggest water company, supplying around 15-million customers in London and the south-east of England.

Contingency plans are understood to include discussions with ministers and the regulator around possibly placing it into temporary public ownership.

Streatham Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy is calling for the government to “take water into permanent public ownership and stop rewarding failure.”