Scarsella to remain at UKPN after withdrawing from Thames talks

Basil Scarsella has told Utility Week he plans to remain in post as chief executive of UK Power Networks (UKPN) after pulling out of talks to join Thames Water.

Sky News revealed at the weekend that Scarsella had withdrawn his application for the role of chief executive at Thames, just as an official announcement confirming his appointment was expected. The story quoted a source at Thames who said Scarsella had stepped back for “entirely understandable personal reasons”.

Speaking to Utility Week, Scarsella confirmed the new turn of events but insisted they would not impact his existing leadership position. Instead, Scarsella indicated he was looking forward to continuing as chief executive of UKPN, a role he has held since 2011.

Thames Water began its hunt for a new chief executive in July last year after Steve Robertson was ousted from the role. The company is seeking a new leader who can affect a major turnaround in its fortunes, having long occupied bottom rankings in a number of industry league tables and attracted the ire of industry regulators on a number of high profile occasions – including a record £20 million pollution fine from the Environment Agency in 2017 and £120m penalty from Ofwat for leakage in 2018.

The latter penalty was followed by an open letter from Ofwat chair Jonson Cox which set out a number of transformation challenges for Thames, including demands for greater “transparency and clarity about the financial returns to the company’s shareholders”.

Utility Week understands recruitment will now return to the drawing board while Thames chairman Ian Marchant maintains a dual role as interim chief executive.

A spokesman for the company said: “The board of Thames Water, led by Ian Marchant, has been conducting a thorough search for a CEO. It would be inappropriate to comment on an ongoing process and we will make an announcement when a decision has been made.

“We have a committed and strong leadership team driving our plans forward, and our focus on delivering for customers and protecting the environment remains unchanged while the search continues.”

Back in July, Utility Week investigated the challenging brief for headhunters in filling the top role at Thames – pointing out that the successful candidate needed to have sufficient engineering nous to grasp the complexities of patching up Victorian infrastructure, know where to spend money and grasp how best to harness new technology. Additionally, they had to possess the charm and charisma to galvanise a despondent team to deliver huge efficiencies, as well as being comfortable with the constant attention of the media, politicians and regulators .

While all of the above remains true, the company is arguably in a much more stable position than it was six months ago. The threat of nationalisation has faded and Ofwat’s final determination on the company’s business plan for the next five years saw the regulator concede some ground on its draft determination.