New minister must not kowtow to the social housing mafia like Angela Rayner September 10, 2025 Steve Reed must choose: will he side with reformers who understand the need for the private sector to be allowed to deliver, or with the old guard whose obsession with social and affordable housing means perpetual scarcity dressed up as compassion? Asks Simon Clarke When the new Housing Secretary, Steve Reed, declared on Monday he [...]
Starmer’s new team faces same old problem September 9, 2025 Good news from Downing Street as we’re told that economic growth is back on the agenda. Keir Starmer’s revamped cabinet meets for the first time today and the prime minister will apparently tell this bright new team to “step up a gear” and focus on the economy. The briefings that accompanied the wave of new [...]
Meet the new ministers driving Labour’s latest growth mission September 9, 2025 A £25bn fiscal black hole, fading housebuilding hopes and lacklustre productivity growth marked a troublesome end to the first year in office for the new occupants of Downing Street this summer. While the resignation of Angela Rayner – the popular Labour figure who had called for the Treasury to turn left and tax the wealthy – [...]
Rachel Reeves tells creditors to resolve Thames Water crisis September 1, 2025 Rachel Reeves has called for a “market-based solution” to be found at Thames Water before the company is put into special administration. The Chancellor reportedly sent a letter to creditors of Thames Water to state that any solution must result in a “successful turnaround”. Her letter came after environment secretary Steve Reed said the government [...]
Labour lines up advisers for Thames Water administration August 12, 2025 Labour ministers have reached out to top insolvency practitioners in the scenario Thames Water falls into special administration, it has been reported. The UK’s largest water company is at a crisis point after private equity giant KKR pulled out of a multi-billion pound investment deal that could have offered it a lifeline given Thames Water [...]
Thames Water lenders offer £17bn plan, push Ofwat for ‘regulatory reset’ June 10, 2025 A group of Thames Water’s major creditors have put forward a sweeping, multibillion-pound rescue deal, while calling for forgiveness of historic fines from Ofwat. Major investment firms, including Aberdeen and Elliott Management, are among the investors, who have said they have “the funding and experience required to deliver a transformation of the company’s performance which is intended [...]
Thames Water: What next after KKR walks? June 3, 2025 Thames Water was dealt a crushing blow this morning after its preferred bidder, the US private equity giant KKR, abruptly withdrew from its pursuit of the embattled utility. The decision leaves the UK’s largest water supplier without a buyer and puts it back on the brink of administration. It follows just a week after it [...]
Environment secretary says Thames Water has ‘a number’ of options June 3, 2025 Environment secretary Steve Reed told LBC’s Nick Ferrari that there are “a number” of potential investors for Thames Water, just minutes after news broke that US private equity firm KKR had dropped out of a last ditch effort to save the embattled water giant. Reed had already been booked to appear for a ‘Call the [...]
Record 81 criminal investigations opened into water firms May 20, 2025 Over 80 criminal investigations into water firms have been launched since the general election, which if proven could leave bosses facing five years in jail and firms on the hook for hundreds of millions of pounds, the environment watchdog has said. The Environment Agency has used new powers handed to it by the government to [...]
‘Productivity argument’ against family firm tax breaks, IFS director argues February 25, 2025 There is a “productivity argument” against treating family businesses “generously”, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) director has argued, when asked about inheritance tax. Economist Paul Johnson addressed the National Farmers Union (NFU) conference in Westminster on Tuesday, which saw environment secretary Steve Reed’s speech interrupted by farming protestors, as well as NFU president Tom [...]