On 23rd July 2024, the Archbishop of Canterbury asked a question on over-return to shareholders in water companies and whether the government plans to put in place measures to prevent this, during a discussion on the financial resilience of England’s water industry:
The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: I join in congratulating the noble Baroness on her appointment. Picking up on the previous question, which is very much the point, is it not true that the shareholders of Thames Water and others have made extraordinary returns by financial engineering, well in excess of what one would expect to make from a utility, which should be low risk and low reward? In looking at the future structure, will the Government put in place measures to prevent the over-return to shareholders by means of financial engineering, and limit the upside so that utilities are run basically for their customers and not simply for the short-term gain of those who have them?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab, DEFRA): That is an extremely good point, and very well made. The problem is that we should have had firm action from government to ensure that action was taken much earlier so that money was spent properly on fixing the system, rather than paying dividends and bonuses to company shareholders and not looking at how the company was being financially operated in a way that worked for both customers and the environment.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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