Yorkshire Water boss should address how the company got into its current dire state - Yorkshire Post Letters
From: Colin Challen, Scarborough.
The gloss that Yorkshire Water's chief executive Nicola Shaw paints the business's future with might shine a bit more if she would be prepared to address how the company got into its current dire state.
I realise this history long predates her tenure but I seriously wonder whether somebody so closely wedded to a private equity finance structure can transparently make the significant changes that are required.
Yorkshire Water has bled money to private equity outfits for decades. Customers are entitled to ask how it was that Yorkshire Water lent Kelda Holdings £940m and Kelda has now been told by Ofwat to pay it back.
What exactly was the 'loan' for? Lest anyone be hoodwinked, Kelda, still based in Jersey (why?) is in reality nothing more than Yorkshire Water. Ms Shaw's extra Kelda earnings cannot somehow be portrayed as unrelated to Yorkshire Water. Without Yorkshire Water there would be no Kelda Holdings.
In the interests of 'transparency' other Yorkshire Water funded 'businesses' were deregistered in the Cayman Islands. Unless Kelda Holdings is deregistered in Jersey I'm afraid I would find it difficult to believe a word Ms Shaw says.