内容摘要：said fans had been worrying about what was going to the happen to the Shrimpers for "a long time".

said fans had been worrying about what was going to the happen to the Shrimpers for "a long time".

So how did we get here, how might it be fixed and what will that mean for customers and their bills?Reflecting on water privatisation in her memoirs, Margaret Thatcher wrote that "the rain may come from the Almighty but he did not send the pipes, plumbing and engineering to go with it".

When her government privatised the water companies in the late 1980s, they were debt free. Today they have a combined £60bn in debt.There is nothing intrinsically wrong with debt. It can be a cost-efficient way to finance investment in an industry that lenders have been very happy to lend to.And it's easy to see why they've been so happy to lend to it. Water companies have guaranteed and rising income from customers, who can’t go anywhere else for something they will always need. Regional monopolies of an essential service that provides a guaranteed income have always been considered a safe bet.

The other attraction for shareholders in water companies, like others, is that the cost of the loan repayments can be deducted from earnings to reduce reported profit and therefore their tax bill.Some shareholders, not all, have pushed this too far and loaded an excessive amount of debt on water companies. That can backfire when the cost of that debt begins to rise – as we have seen over the last two years as interest rates rose to tackle the surge in inflation since 2022.

For example, during the 10 years that Australian investment firm Macquarie was Thames Water’s biggest shareholder from 2007 to 2017, debt rose from £2bn to £11bn, during which time Macquarie and the other investors did not inject any new cash or equity of their own.

In five years out of the 10 that Macquarie was a major shareholder in Thames Water, investors took out more money in dividends than the company made in profit and made up the shortfall by borrowing heavily while letting debt levels soar.Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer met with senior police leaders on Thursday to offer them his "full backing".

, charged with murdering three girls and attempting to murder eight other children and two adults in Monday's knife attack. He was named as Axel Muganwa Rudakubana.Dal Babu, former Ch Supt and firearms commander in the Met, has blamed the disorder on the "reckless" spread

about the identity of the suspect charged in the stabbing.Speaking on BBC R4's Today Programme, Mr Babu said the police have taken the "unprecedented" decision to confirm the suspect "was born in this country".