Corporate kleptocracy refers to a corporation whose key actors use their positions and power deviously to, in effect, steal money. The term ‘kleptocracy’ (from the Greek kleftis, thief) is a rhetorical device and does not imply that individuals have necessarily directly stolen any money or assets. In Southern Water’s case, a culture of indirect financial enlargement and amoral calculation is far more likely.

Some argue that corporate kleptocracy should only refer to stealing shareholders’ money. Others insist that it should also include corporate executives who, for example, hyper-inflate customer bills and siphon off the excess money for corporate (e.g. capital funding) and/or their own personal gain (e.g. enlarged salaries and bonuses). Unless and until there are any prosecutions and judicial determinations against Southern Water and its executives on such matters, the question remains open.

In Southern Water’s case, it is clear that it is both the foreign major shareholders of Greensands Holdings (Macquarie Asset Management, JP Morgan, UBS Asset Management and Hermes Infrastructure) and Southern’s directors who benefit ultimately, if indirectly, from any extra cash inflow from inflated customer bills. Presumably, the shareholders have all fully approved Southern’s hyper-inflated customer bills policy.

The offshore (i.e. non-British) controlling owners and investors in Southern Water must bear a major responsibility, along with the Southern Water board, for both the corporate decay and neglect over years and the hyper-inflated customer bills and company’s ongoing crisis.