Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and is the man that gets the City talking in his weekly City A.M. column.
This week he tackles the next government’s Thames headache, English cricket and Shein investors. Thames Water, Harland & Wolff, British Steel: the roll-call of industrial names requiring emergency aid to avert their demise is sobering – and a big headache for whoever forms the next government. Thames’ size, and the implications of its potential collapse into temporary state ownership, makes it the most pressing of the trio to resolve – but also the most assured of a future, regardless of the outcome for its current shareholders and bondholders.
Under a Labour administration, it’s impossible to conceive of a state bailout for Britain’s biggest water utility Thames which spares existing investors enormous pain. With Ofwat’s final determinations on water companies’ five-year business plans not due until the end of the year, the responsible ministers after 4 July will need to work swiftly to accelerate contingency planning for a special administration of Thames. Both Harland & Wolff and British Steel may, paradoxically, be more difficult challenges to solve.
In the case of the former, a Whitehall row about the provision of a loan guarantee from UK Export Finance has reportedly put the company’s future in jeopardy. The outcome of the election here may be crucial. It’s hard to see a newly elected Labour government sanctioning a decision which leads .
