Don’t indulge the Thames Water whingers next week, prime minister | Nils Pratley

Labour should stand firm at its investors summit and remind attenders that the UK’s utilities sector is eminently investable

The Labour government’s first international investment summit arrives next week, a chance for ministers to advertise the splendid opportunities available to global funds under the UK’s new pro-growth, mission-led, market-friendly administration. It is also a moment for those global investors to belly-ache about Ofwat, the water regulator.

In fact, they’ve started already. Here comes the Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund with a write-off of its entire 9.9% stake in Thames Water, the over-indebted big beast of the sector. Aside from Thames’s “operational performance” (well, quite), Abu Dhabi blamed “the challenging regulatory environment”, a nod to the familiar grumble that Ofwat has somehow made English water companies “uninvestable” by refusing to allow customers’ bills to be hiked to the moon, just halfway to it.

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