Thames Water

Thames Water’s growth trajectory was underpinned by resource shortfalls tied to market trends of population and household growth, infrastructure replacement and asset health improvement needs, changing weather patterns a well as regulatory and environmental drivers.

Thames Water provided the opportunity to invest in one of the most mature regulatory sectors globally in a stable economy. The company is a natural monopoly with a long-dated asset base, underpinned by a 25-year rolling licence and operating within a transparent and stable regulatory framework.

During Wren House’s involvement, as a member of the operating company and working together with our co-shareholder Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), we contributed to strengthening of the management team through appointment of a new CEO and resultant strengthening of the executive team and implementation of a multi-Asset Management Plan approach to the business planning process. During our ownership, we worked with the management to ensure a case was made for additional conditional allowances on the back of a challenging regulatory settlement by raising awareness of the need for increased investment in the network. This drove improved productivity through a long-term sustainable cost efficiency programme ahead of the next regulatory period and improved use of data and analytics. Together with the group of like-minded co-shareholders, we rigorously focused on financial discipline and enhancement of overall governance.