Watering Down the Shark's Profits?

The 'stand-off' between London's privatised Water Company, Thames Water, and Ofwat (the agency charged with protecting water user's interests) continues. Thames Water needs to fix its leaking pipes and to start sticking to the environmental rules on dumping raw sewage into rivers. Both will cost money. As its shareholders are unwilling to pay, this monopoly's latest plan, could raise bills for its customers by 44% (excluding inflation) (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/22/thames-water-bills-fix-leaks). Thames Water wouldn't, however, now need to find so much money, if it had earlier invested more of its considerable yearly profits into obviously-required infrastructural improvements. Clearly, too much of their cash went to rewarding shareholders and CEOs. Profits before service? Renationalisation is apparently still an option. The money that was historically 'creamed off' will never, however, be returned. Only current shareholders and/or Thames Water customers will end up paying for this fiasco.