Business reporter, BBC News<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Thames Water is “extremely stressed” and will take “at least a decade to turn around”, its boss has said, as the struggling company posted huge annual losses.<\/p>\n Thames reported a loss of \u00a31.65bn for the year to March, while its debt pile climbed to \u00a316.8bn.<\/p>\n The UK’s largest water and waste company claimed “significant rainfall and high groundwater levels” led to pollution incidents increasing by more than a third, but said it had tried to address “many of the underlying causes of our poor performance”.<\/p>\n The results came as Thames bosses were quizzed by MPs. Fears the company could collapse first emerged two years ago and its future is still uncertain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Thames serves about a quarter of the UK’s population, mostly across London and parts of southern England, and employs 8,000 people.<\/p>\n Chris Weston, chief executive of Thames Water, said the company had made “good progress” on its performance, “despite the ongoing challenging financial situation”.<\/p>\n “The company is extremely stressed and operating in very difficult circumstances,” he later told MPs on the Environment Committee. <\/p>\n “To turn around and transform this company is going to take between five and 10 years, maybe a bit more.”<\/p>\n Last month, Thames suffered a major blow in its attempt to secure its future when US private equity firm KKR pulled out of a \u00a34bn rescue deal.<\/a><\/p>\n The setback has increased the possibility that the company could collapse into a government-supervised administration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Thames has continued to face heavy criticism over its performance in recent years, following a series of sewage discharges and leaks. <\/p>\n In May, it was handed a \u00a3122.7m fine, the biggest ever issued by the water industry regulator Ofwat, for breaching rules on sewage spills and shareholder payouts.<\/p>\n The watchdog has confirmed the fines will be paid by the company and its investors, and not by customers who were hit with water bill increases in April.<\/p>\n Water bills for households in England and Wales have risen by \u00a310 per month on average, although costs vary depending on suppliers <\/a>– Thames customer bills have gone up from \u00a3488 to \u00a3639 a year.<\/p>\n![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/c3fe\/live\/69126810-614f-11f0-a40e-a1af2950b220.jpg.webp\")
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