Water Act 1989

85 Transfer of successor company liabilities to holding companies

(1) The Secretary of State may by order made by statutory instrument transfer to that company’s nominated holding company the liabilities of a successor company in respect of the principal of any relevant loan.

(2) Where the Secretary of State has made an order under subsection (1) above in respect of the liabilities of any successor company and he considers it appropriate to do so, he may give a direction under this subsection to that company and that company shall, as a consequence of the making of the order, issue such debentures of the company to its nominated holding company as may be specified or described in the direction.

(3) The Secretary of State—

(a) shall not exercise his power to make an order under this section except with the consent of the Treasury; and

(b) shall not make such an order transferring the liability of any company or give a direction under subsection (2) above to any company, except at a time when the company is wholly owned by the Crown.

(4) Subsection (4) of section 83 above shall apply for the purposes of this section as it applies for the purposes of that section.

(5) In this section “relevant loan”, in relation to the successor company of a water authority, means any sum borrowed or treated as borrowed by the authority from the Secretary of State or the Public Works Loan Commissioners, being a sum the liability to repay which has vested in the authority’s successor company in accordance with any scheme under Schedule 2 to this Act.