Thursday newspaper round-up: Thames Water, mortgage costs, UK car production

Thames Water has breached its licence to supply water to nearly 16 million people after some of its debt was downgraded to junk status. The regulator Ofwat could now fine Thames, the country’s largest water monopoly, up to 10% of its annual turnover, equating to hundreds of millions of pounds. However, since the company is already teetering close to temporary renationalisation, Ofwat is likely to hold off on any immediate large fines. – Guardian

As many as 320,000 UK adults have been pushed into poverty by soaring mortgage costs after the sharpest increase in interest rates since the 1980s, a leading thinktank has said. Highlighting the damage caused by Britain’s exploding mortgage timebomb, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said individuals who needed to renew their home loans or take out new ones in the past two years had experienced a sharp fall in their disposable income. – Guardian

An Abu Dhabi-backed firm has invested $100m (£77m) in one of Britain’s biggest microchip companies as the Gulf state seeks to become a major player in artificial intelligence (AI). Fortress Investment Group, majority owned by Abu Dhabi’s wealth fund Mubadala Capital, has backed Imagination Technologies with a loan that can convert to equity in the company over time. – Telegraph

Top partner pay at Clifford Chance inched up by £40,000 to average £2.04 million as the City law firm reported its best financial performance for seven years. The “magic circle” firm announced that revenue for the year finishing at the end of last April rose by 9 per cent to £2.3 billion, the highest increase since 2017. That generated an overall partnership profit of £856 million, an annual increase of 10 per cent. – The Times

UK car production fell by 7.6 per cent in the first six months of the year, as manufacturers retooled their factories towards electric vehicle production. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), factories turned out 416,074 new models, 34,094 fewer than in the same period in 2023. The fall in overall car production was driven by a significant decline in exports, while the number of cars produced for the UK market actually expanded by 17.7 per cent year-on-year to 106,157 in the first six months of 2024. Cars produced for export fell by 13.9 per cent to 309,917 vehicles. – The Times