London's Thames Tideway Tunnel now fully connected
London's new £5bn super sewer has been fully connected and is already stopping half a million tonnes of sewage from entering the River Thames, the firm behind it has said.After 10 years of construction work, the last of the 21 connections of the Thames Tideway Tunnel was made to the city's Victorian sewage system.The 16-mile (25km) pipe will divert 34 of the most-polluting sewage outflows that have been discharging into the Thames.Tideway chief executive Andy Mitchell said: "This is another significant step forward – with this final connection complete, the super sewer is fully up and running and protecting the Thames."
London's combined sewage system handles human waste and rain runoff together, but the capital's population has outgrown the infrastructure.The new system is expected to stop 95% of the sewage spills that previously would have polluted the river.
Connections have been made at locations including the starting point of the University Boat Race at Putney Embankment; Chelsea and Victoria Embankments; Blackfriars Bridge in the heart of the City of London; and King Edward Memorial Park in Wapping.The Thames Tideway Tunnel connects with the 4.2-mile (6.9km) Lee Tunnel, an existing Thames Water asset, creating the London Tideway Tunnel system. The infrastructure project, funded by Thames Water customers, will reduce sewage discharges into the Thames and create lasting benefits for biodiversity, recreation and public health, a Tideway spokesperson said.The project is not yet fully complete, as it will still need to be tested in storm conditions over the coming months.Thames Water will then take over the operation of the system.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed described the tunnel as "an example of the kind of infrastructure investment needed to clean up our waterways around the country", adding: "This government is determined to clean up our polluted rivers, lakes and seas – and that includes the capital's iconic Thames river."London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said it was an "important milestone" towards cleaning up London's waterways.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
12 hours ago
- Sky News
Hong Kong giant CKI demands to rejoin auction of stricken Thames Water
The Hong Kong-based investor CK Infrastructure Holdings (CKI) is demanding to be readmitted to the auction of ailing Thames Water, days after its preferred bidder walked away and pushed it closer to the abyss of nationalisation. Sky News can exclusively reveal that CKI wrote to Sir Adrian Montague, the chairman of Thames Water, on Monday, seeking access to due diligence materials and insisting that it could be ready to table a formal bid to take control of the company within six weeks. In the letter, which was signed by Andy Hunter, CKI's deputy managing director, the owner of Northumbrian Water said it was keen to rejoin the Thames Water board's equity-raise process, roughly three months after submitting a multibillion pound proposal to take control. Britain's biggest water utility has been plunged back into crisis by a decision last week by KKR, the private equity firm, to abandon its status as preferred bidder. Sky News revealed that the decision was made after talks between KKR and Downing Street officials amid concerns about the political risk of bailing out a company which supplies essential services to more than 15m people. Since then, Thames Water's biggest group of creditors - accounting for approximately £13bn of its vast debt-pile - has submitted what it described as a £17bn proposal to recapitalise the company. This, the bondholders said, would comprise £3bn of new equity and more than £2bn of debt funding. Existing shareholders would be completely wiped out, while there would also be several billion pounds of debt writedowns aimed at restoring financial resilience and improving services, 2:27 The bondholders are reported to seeking immunity from prosecution for Thames Water's environmental failings, while they also want an agreement that Ofwat, the industry regulator, would drastically reduce the level of financial penalties facing the company. Last month, Thames Water was fined a record £123m over sewage leaks and the payment of dividends, with Ofwat lambasting the company over its performance and governance. Sir Adrian has run into yet more difficulties in recent days, with MPs on a key Commons select committee questioning evidence he had given to it and calling on Thames Water to claw back hundreds of thousands of pounds paid to a number of senior executives as retention payments in recent months. Under new laws, Thames Water is among half a dozen water companies which have been barred from paying bonuses this year because of their poor environmental records. 1:33 CKI owns large swathes of British infrastructure, including Northumbrian Water, Northern Gas Networks, UK Power Networks and Eversholt, the rolling-stock leasing company which has been put up for sale. Its expertise in running major companies of the scale of Thames Water would resolve a headache for ministers anxious to avoid placing the group into a special administration regime (SAR), which would incur a multibillion pound bill for taxpayers. Ministers are also said to be wary about the lack of experience in the bondholder group at running a major water company, although Sky News revealed last week that the business veteran Mike McTighe had been lined up to spearhead their interest. "This is a proven operator versus a group of financial engineers," said one person close to CKI. However, a takeover of Thames Water by CKI could yet face stiff political opposition. In April, a cross-party group of politicians wrote to Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, expressing concerns about CKI's links to Beijing. Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative Party leader and a strident critic of Chinese investment in the UK, posted on social media last week that a CKI takeover of Thames Water "should be avoided at all costs". CKI had already expressed frustration at being eliminated from the Thames Water process in April, with The Times reporting that it had written to Ofwat to express its dismay. In recent weeks, the government has described Thames Water as "stable", but said it was ready to step in and take control of the company if required to. The company effectively faces a deadline of late July to finalise a rescue deal because of a referral of its five-year regulatory settlement to the Competition and Markets Authority.
The Guardian
13 hours ago
- The Guardian
Put Thames Water into temporary state control, say ‘junior' creditors
Thames Water should be placed into temporary government control to avoid setting a 'deeply troubling precedent', according to bondholders who face losing all of their money in the latest rescue bid. The struggling utility is under the control of a group of lenders who hold the bulk of its huge £20bn debt pile. Those 'senior' creditors on Tuesday revealed details of a last-ditch rescue effort with £5bn in funding, alongside writing off about £6.7bn in debt. However, the plan faces opposition from other 'junior' bondholders, as well as a host of campaigners, who argue that the government should place Thames under a special administration regime (SAR), effectively a temporary nationalisation. The junior bondholders, which include hedge funds such as Polus Capital and Covalis Capital, argued the rescue plan would undermine 'the UK's infrastructure credibility'. Thames Water, the privatised provider of water and sewage services to 16 million customers in London and south-east England, has lurched from crisis to crisis over the past two years as its balance sheet was stretched by expensive debt repayments. At the same time, it is under huge public pressure to stop sewage flowing into rivers and seas. The senior creditors were forced to step in after the US private equity group KKR last week abandoned a bid seen as financially and politically complex. The company will instead be controlled by a group of 100 creditors ranging from big institutional investors such as Aberdeen, BlackRock, Invesco and M&G, to US hedge funds such as Elliott Investment Management and Silver Point Capital. The senior creditors are keen to avoid a special administration that would probably result in most of their loans being written off. The Labour government also wants to avoid imposing a SAR, fearful of the nominal effect on the public finances. However, as part of their rescue bid the senior creditors have asked for leniency from the water regulator, Ofwat, over future fines for environmental failures or criminal breaches of the company's licences. That request for leniency is deeply controversial, as it would allow the senior creditors to escape deeper debt write-offs – potentially allowing some of them to profit immediately. Other water companies across England and Wales would also be likely to ask for leniency themselves. A person familiar with the junior bondholders' thinking said that the bid 'raises serious governance and accountability concerns'. 'The senior creditors are seeking preferential treatment, including unfair immunity from environmental fines, in a process they have engineered to exclude all other stakeholders,' the person said. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion The junior bondholders are instead hoping for SAR, which they said would open the Thames Water restructuring process to a 'broader range of competitive, long-term investors capable of delivering a genuine turnaround'. A SAR would probably wipe out the senior creditors' debts, but for the junior creditors it also offers the possibility of being able to invest in Thames Water, potentially allowing them to salvage a financial return.
Telegraph
16 hours ago
- Telegraph
Trump warns China ‘not easy' as trade talks enter second day
7:34AM Good morning Thanks for joining me. Donald Trump said it was 'not easy' dealing with China but insisted he had received 'good reports' about trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing officials in London. Here is what you need to know as talks enter a second day. 5 things to start your day Apple's AI event falls flat as iPhone maker struggles | Investors sent shares downwards as Apple unveiled minor upgrades Thames Water lenders demand reprieve on fines in £17bn rescue deal | Ofwat urged to consider 'regulatory reset' after struggling utility giant hit with record penalty Nervous families freeze spending in blow to growth hopes | Fresh pressure on Rachel Reeves as retail sales rise just 1pc Miliband warned carbon capture project faces collapse without £4bn injection | Fledgling green tech has already received almost £22bn in public subsidies SNP ferry scheme suffers fresh blow after rain causes ship to flood | Glen Rosa is already behind schedule and £100m over budget What happened overnight Asian shares were mixed on Tuesday as investors kept an eye on the China-US trade talks that might help stave off a recession. A second day of talks was planned after US and Chinese officials met in London for negotiations over various issues. The hope is that they can eventually reach a deal to reduce painfully high tariffs against each other. Most of the tariff hikes imposed since Donald Trump escalated his trade war are paused to allow trade in everything from tiny tech gadgets to enormous machinery to continue. In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gained 0.2pc to 38,177.71, while the Kospi in South Korea jumped 0.3pc to 2,865.24. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.2pc to 24,127.30 and the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.5pc to 3,384.47. In Taiwan, the Taiex surged 2.1pc to 22,242.14. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.8pc to 8,587.20. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat, at 42,761.76, the S&P 500 rose 0.1pc, to 6,005.88. and the Nasdaq rose 0.3pc, to 19,591.24. In the bond market, the yield on benchmark 10-year US Treasury notes fell to 4.478pc from 4.494pc late on Sunday.
