• Swindon & Wiltshire Economy
• Thursday November 2 2023
• Author Name: Peter Davison

Thames Water confirms 300 job cuts

Utilities giant Thames Water said today (Thursday)  it is cutting 300 jobs in the face of “extremely challenging year for the business.”

The Reading-based company said it was proposing a net decrease of 300 roles, of which over half are currently vacant.

The firm said the cuts would be made primarily in its retail and digital divisions. The announcement “will not result in any changes to the way we serve our customers across our network,” the company stressed.

In a statement, the company said: “Delivering our refocused turnaround plan will strengthen the operational and financial resilience of Thames Water, so that we can continue to meet our customers’ needs, and create a platform from which to accelerate progress, underpinning our business plan for 2025-2030 and beyond.

“However, we know we can’t do everything. The last year has been an extremely challenging year for the business and we continue to take a rigorous approach to financial discipline throughout the company in order to operate within budget.

“We need to make more difficult but necessary decisions to ensure we continue to deliver to our budgets. That’s why today we’ve announced a range of measures to reduce our costs further and become more efficient.

“This means we are consulting on a proposal which could lead to the potential loss of around c.300 roles.

“We will seek to minimise compulsory redundancies wherever possible, through redeployment and voluntary redundancy.

“Front line colleagues will not be impacted by these proposed changes, with roles at risk primarily in our Retail and Digital functions as well as some other areas. Change does mean difficult decisions and we are focused on supporting our colleagues throughout the process.”

Gary Carter of the GMB Union, which along with Unite and Unison has been in discussions with Thames Wayer management over the cuts, said: “Thames Water has danced with the devil and now workers are paying the price.

“In the 40 years since privatisation, we’ve seen virtually no investment, systematic asset stripping and billions of public money drained from the system to fill already building shareholder and fat cat coffers.

“As a result, Thames is on its knees and water workers are losing their livelihoods.

“It’s abhorrent and systematic of the failed experiment that is water privatisation.

“GMB will fight to minimise any compulsory redundancies and make sure our members get every penny they are due.”

The union said it understood 89 retail jobs and 39 digital jobs were being cut.

Thames Water currently employs around 8,200 people across the whole of its business, which serves 15 million customers in Swindon & Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, and in London.

In June it was reported that the government was preparing for the collapse of the company amid growing doubts about its ability to service £14 billion debt burden.