Recommendation 5

We have serious concerns about the suitability of the London & Valley Water (L&VW) consortium as owners of a critical resource and about the conduct of the negotiation process. Their lack of transparency and the group’s insistence on the suspension of regulatory requirements raises concerns that they may not be the low-risk, low-return investors required. To delay a Special Administration Regime (SAR), these same creditors have offered high-interest loans to the very company they intend to purchase. Aside from the ethics of the loans themselves, we have no confidence that a satisfactory deal can be reached, in part due to their unchecked influence over the bidding process. (Conclusion, Paragraph 27)