Trolley 181

Trolley 181 was captured outside what looked like a Thames Water depot behind East Street. The Thames Water which used to be a Water Board run by the people for the people - that is to say a nationalised industry - and which is now owned by an outfit called Kemble Water Holdings Ltd, in a chain which involves at least seven other companies with at least two of them having a strong tax haven smell about them. No smoke without fire say I!

For some reason just one of these companies is a PLC, not the one at the top of the heap as it happens, with the rest being just plain old LTD. Perhaps the limited liability is the really important bit.

On the other hand, the largest beneficial owner with around 30% is a Canadian pension fund, with other respectable looking pension funds holding further significant chunks. Something under 10% each for Abu Dubai, Kuwait and China. So most of our excess water rates are going to good causes.

And I was pleased to find that Thames Water made it easy to find all this out at reference 1.

Reference 1: https://corporate.thameswater.co.uk/About-us/Our-investors/Our-corporate-governance/Ownership-structure.