Thames Water

Thames Water

Type	Private
Industry	Water industry
Founded	1989
Headquarters	Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom
Area served	United Kingdom, but principally South England
Key people	Sir Peter Mason KBE (Chairman); Steve Robertson (CEO); Stuart Siddall (CFO); Richard Aylard CVO;
Products	Drinking water Recycled wastewater Biosolid fertilisers Recovered phosphates Renewable energy
Production output	2.6 Gl/day (drinking) 4.4 Gl/day (recycled)
Services	Water supply Sewage treatment
Revenue	£2.047 billion (2015–16) £2.027 billion (2014–15)
Operating income	£335.8 million (2014–15) £259.3 million (2013–14)
Number of employees	5,000 staff plus many contractors
Parent	Kemble Water Holdings Ltd
Website	www.thameswater.co.uk

Thames Water Utilities Ltd, known as Thames Water, is the private utility company responsible for the public water supply and waste water treatment in large parts of Greater London, the Thames Valley, Surrey, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Kent, and some other areas of the United Kingdom. Thames Water is the UK's largest water and wastewater services company, and supplies 2.6 billion litres (570 million imperial gallons) of drinking water per day, and treats 4.4 billion litres (970 million imperial gallons) of wastewater per day. Thames Water's 15 million customers comprise 27% of the UK population.

Thames Water is responsible for a range of water management infrastructure projects including: the Thames Water Ring Main around London; the Lee Tunnel;Europe's largest wastewater treatment works and the UK's first large-scale desalination plant, both at Beckton. Thames Water awarded Bazalgette Tunnel Ltd the contract to build the £4.2 billion London Tideway Tunnel Infrastructure proposals by Thames Water include the proposed reservoir at Abingdon, Oxfordshire, which would be the largest enclosed or bunded reservoir in the UK.

Thames Water is regulated under the Water Industry Act 1991 and is owned by Kemble Water Holdings Ltd, a consortium formed in late 2006 by Australian-based Macquarie Group's European Infrastructure Funds specifically for the purpose of purchasing Thames Water. Other large shareholders in recent years include: BT Pension Scheme (13%), the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (9.9%) and the China Investment Corporation (8.7%). The name of the company reflects its role providing water to the drainage basin of the River Thames and not the source of its water, which is taken from a range of rivers and boreholes.