Ministers are drawing up plans to nationalise Thames Water as it wrestles with a £14bn debt pile.
The company is struggling to raise £1bn from investors as it tries to execute an eight-year turnaround plan designed to fix its vast leakage problem.
It comes after its chief executive Sarah Bentley unexpectedly resigned with immediate effect on Tuesday.
5 things to start your day
1) Thames Water boss quits amid race to raise £1bn from investors | Government monitoring situation as Sarah Bentley leaves less than halfway through turnaround plan
2) Sunak’s stealth tax raid hits 1.2 million savers | Figures come after Hunt vows to crack down on banks for paying poor savings rates
3) Guinness owner hits back at P Diddy over racism claims | Diageo moves to shut down a lawsuit by the rapper terming the allegations ‘false and reckless’
4) Britain risks missing out on £100bn electric car prize without radical changes, bosses warn | Fiercely competitive investment landscape requires national response to boost UK’s appeal
5) Forecasting failures under Bailey have made inflation worse, admits Bank of England policymaker | The Bank repeatedly underestimated price rise since the pandemic
What happened overnight
Asian shares were mixed despite a rally on Wall Street driven by optimism over reports suggesting the American economy is in better shape than feared.
Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1.1pc to 7,194.00 after the government reported that the consumer price index rose 5.6pc in the twelve months to May.
The most significant price rises included housing and food. The Reserve Bank of Australia made a surprise move of raising interest rate earlier this month to counter persisted price pressures.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 1.5pc in afternoon trading to 33,029.73. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.7pc to 2,562.72. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.3pc to 19,083.80, while the Shanghai Composite dipped 0.7pc to 3,167.36.
Wall Street stocks surged on Tuesday as new economic data showing strong US consumer confidence and higher-than-expected house sales reassured anxious investors on the macroeconomic outlook.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes 0.6pc higher at 33,926.74. The broad-based S&P 500 rose 1.2pc to 4,378.41, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.7pc to 13,555.67.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury rose to 3.76pc from 3.72pc late Monday. The two-year Treasury yield, which moves more on expectations for the Fed, rose to 4.76pc from 4.74pc.
