Ban Chinese companies from investing in British water utilities, ministers urged
Ministers are being urged to block Chinese firms from investing in water utilities after they were banned from involvement with the Sizewell C nuclear plant.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed has been warned that allowing companies based in China or Hong Kong to buy crucial utilities would be 'negligent'.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband last week banned Chinese investment in the Sizewell C nuclear plant amid growing concerns over the country's involvement in key UK infrastructure.
And it followed demands from CKI, which is owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li-Ka-shing and already holds a majority stake in Northumbrian Water, to be allowed to bid for Thames Water.
The struggling utility was plunged further into crisis earlier this month after American private equity giant KKR – the Government's preferred bidder – abandoned a £4bn rescue plan.
KKR's U-turn – which sources said was due to concerns about the risk of political interference – fuelled fears that taxpayers could be forced to bail out Britain's biggest water company.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed has been warned that allowing companies based in China or Hong Kong to buy crucial utilities would be 'negligent'
Tory MP Nick Timothy said Chinese companies should not be allowed to invest in Thames Water.
In a letter to Reed, seen by the Mail, Timothy said Miliband's decision was 'correct, given the threat posed by China to the UK and the wider west'.
He said: 'It would be negligent to hand over yet more of our critical national infrastructure on top of China's already extensive footprint.
'In light of the Government's ban on Chinese investment in nuclear power, will you impose a similar ban on further Chinese investment in the water sector?'
Companies in mainland China 'are under various obligations to the Chinese state, such as requirements to support, assist and cooperate with national intelligence efforts', he said.
He argued that those based in Hong Kong 'also pose a serious risk, since they are now subject to authoritarian National Security Laws which have increased Beijing's reach into the territory'.
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