Thames Water's creditors have signalled they will press ahead with a bid to take over the heavily indebted utility even if it is temporarily nationalised by the likely incoming prime minister, Andy Burnham. The group of 100 institutional investors, holding roughly £14bn of the company's senior debt, is continuing to discuss a £10bn rescue proposal with the regulator Ofwat. The matter is one of the most urgent facing Thames, which serves 16 million customers, carries £17.6bn of debt and could run out of money by October.

The proposal has run into political resistance: the environment secretary, Emma Reynolds, objected in mid-June that it would place an "undue burden" on consumers, pushing the firm closer to a special administration regime (SAR). The creditors, who include Elliott Investment Management, Apollo, BlackRock and M&G, view an SAR as a costly, uncertain process rather than a solution and would seek to buy Thames out of it. Their plan would inject £3.35bn of new equity and £3.25bn of fresh debt, and spare Thames pollution fines for four years. Rival potential bidders, including CK Infrastructure Holdings and Castle Water, have instead called for the company to be placed into an SAR.