Sir Adrian Montague: Chairman of Thames Water parent company Kemble quits

Thames Water boss and ex chairman of Aviva, Sir Adrian Montague, pictured here as he leaves a meeting at 11 Downing Street (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

The chairman of Thames Water’s parent company Kemble Water Holdings has resigned.

In an update to markets this morning, it was announced Sir Adrian Montague had resigned as chairman and director of Kemble, Thames Water Utilities Limited’s parent firm.

He has also stood down as director of each of Kemble’s subsidiaries, apart from TWUL and Thames Water Utilities Holdings Limited.

Montague replaced Ian Marchant, who ended his five year stint last year, following the abrupt exit of Sarah Bentley as chief executive officer. He is the former chairman of FTSE 100 insurance giant Aviva, and was seen as a safe pair of hands.

The company said: “This is a personal decision as Sir Adrian believes the time is right solely to focus on fully supporting the Board and Executive Team of TWUL on delivering the refocused turnaround plan in order to better meet our customers’ needs.”

It added that Sir Adrian Montague remains a director and chairman of Thames Water.

According to Companies House, he holds senior positions at six companies linked to Thames Water, following his appointment in July 2023.

This comes as Thames Water faces multiple challenges, including a massive £18bn debt pile, and accusations of mismanagement of its network.

Thames Water has in particular faced criticism for its water and sewage leakages, and is the only major water company to have created a map of sewage discharges, in a bid to be transparent.

Earlier in the week, it was revealed Thames Water will likely leak more water for this year than it previously told investors and the UK’s water regulator.

In the company’s industry-mandated service commitment plan, the embattled firm pushed up its leakage forecasts for this year from 550m litres a day to 585m and between 512m and 530m litres next year – up from the 507m previously forecast.

Last month, the government updated insolvency laws for UK water companies to hedge against losses from potential state bailout funding.

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