Ministers can take water companies into public ownership with minimal cost by using a process called special administration, according to a report by the think tank Common Wealth. Special administration can be used to take over a failing water company, like Thames Water, and keep it permanently under public ownership instead of transferring it to another private company. The report argues that the commonly cited £99bn cost of nationalizing the water industry in England is based on an estimate funded by water companies using a metric called regulatory capital value. This metric takes into account the value of companies in 1990, capital investment per year, and inflation, but not actual market values. The report argues that the actual market value of water companies is lower, with US private equity company KKR offering £4bn to take over Thames Water, even though its regulatory capital value is closer to £20bn.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/09/water-companies-public-ownership-could-cost-close-to-zero-says-common-wealth-thinktank
State control of England’s water utilities may not incur significant expenses, according to a research institute’s assessment | Water sector research
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