The CEO of Thames Water has announced that she will be stepping down from the role amid fears of the companies collapse.

Sarah Bentley, who will continue to support the company until a replacement is found, apparently gave up her bonus due to huge debts and poor performance.

This includes reports which has emerged that the company needs more money to survive before the government steps in.

As of last September, Thames Water owed around £13.8 billion to its lenders, a figure that was around £840 million higher than six months earlier.

The company’s net debt has grown from just under £11 billion in 2018. Much of the debt was added when Thames Water was owned by Macquarie, the massive Australian investor.

In December 2005, before Macquarie bought the utility, Thames Water’s net debt was just £2.4 billion. When Macquarie sold it around a decade later, the debt pile had ballooned to more than £10 billion.

Thames Water had no debt when it was privatised by Margaret Thatcher in 1989.

As the resignation was announced, Thames Water released a statement on the London Stock Exchange about the surge of funding from shareholders.

They said: “As envisaged in June 2022, Thames Water received the expected £500 million of new funding from its shareholders in March 2023 and is continuing to work constructively with its shareholders in relation to the further equity funding expected to be required to support Thames Water's turnaround and investment plans.”

While most companies enter administration when they fail, some companies are considered too important to go bust.

Water and energy companies are among these because if they stop operating people could lose access to vital resources.

So for these companies the Government or regulator Ofwat can apply to a court to appoint a special administrator.

If called in, the special administrator would continue to run the company as usual, ensuring that water supplies to homes and businesses continue.

The administrator would also try to find another investor or private company to buy Thames Water and bring it out of administration.