Hello and welcome to this episode of Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.

I'm Tim Durant, today's presenter. Will the constant drip-drip of bad news ever stop for Rishi

Sunak? Not if the water runs out.

Thames water, which serves a quarter of the UK population, has billions of pounds in debt and could collapse in the next few days.

How did we get here? Is this a failure of regulation? And what can the government do about it?

Do you remember when British politics was made of a cast of good Chaps who could be relied upon to do the right thing?

Well, whether or not that era of good behaviour ever really existed, this week the Good Chaps have been declared dead.

It may not surprise you to know that Boris Johnson is involved. We'll take a look.

And with both Rishi Sunak and Kyrs Stma promising to turn the UK into a clean energy superpower,

just how much progress is the government making on its net zero target.

A new annual progress report is out and it's not a happy read for the government.

So we've got lots to come and a top IFG duo are here alongside me to discuss everything.

Senior fellow Jill Rutter and Program Director Alex Thomas.

Hi both. Hi Tim. Hi Tim. And we're particularly delighted that Henry Hill, Deputy

Editor at Conservative Home, is with us throughout today as well. Hi, Henry. Hello. Let's start

with water or the possible lack of it, because Thames Water is struggling to stay afloat.

Henry, let's start with the politics and the optics.

How bad is this for Rishi Sunak?

I mean, it's very difficult for the government for several reasons.

One, it's just another grinding infrastructure problem, one of many that will affect an awful

lot of households, to fixing it or nationalizing water, which a lot of people want to do in the long run would be incredibly expensive.

Three, it adds to the general sense that this is another crisis that has built up under 13 years of conservative government,

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