Eton College moves lessons online after rainfall hits sewer system

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Eton College, one of Britain’s most prestigious public schools, has told pupils to study from home after heavy rainfall caused sewage issues on its site.

The 584-year-old school was due to welcome back 1,350 students for the start of term on Tuesday. But Eton said flooding in the local area — whose water infrastructure is managed by Thames Water — had forced it to move all lessons online.

The boys-only boarding school counts former UK prime ministers Boris Johnson and Lord David Cameron as well as Prince William and Prince Harry among its alumni, and charges fees in excess of £16,000 a term.

In a statement, Eton College confirmed the sewage issues, first reported by Bloomberg News.

The school said: “Following extensive flooding in the region, the Thames Water sewers which serve the town of Eton flooded. Therefore, boys could not return for the scheduled start of term on January 9 and the college has moved to remote teaching. 

“We are in regular contact with Thames Water as they seek to resolve the situation and we look forward to welcoming boys back as soon as possible,” it added.

The flooding in Eton, near Windsor in Berkshire, is the latest in a number of serious maintenance failures for Britain’s largest privatised water company, which has admitted that it is struggling with repairs to its ageing infrastructure. 

Thousands of households served by Thames Water in Surrey were left without supplies in November after a power failure at a sewage treatment plant triggered by Storm Ciarán.

The company — which provides water and sewerage services to roughly a quarter of the population in England — is struggling with the impact of higher inflation on chemicals, labour, energy and financing costs.

It has asked regulator Ofwat to allow it to raise customer bills by 40 per cent, excluding inflation, by 2030. 

Thames Water — which gained a new chief executive, Chris Weston, on Monday — has also approached its owners, a clutch of pension, sovereign wealth and private equity funds, for new equity.

Thames Water’s overarching group is burdened with a consolidated debt mountain of £18.3bn as of March 31, up from £15.4bn the year before.

It needs to refinance £1bn of debt by the end of 2024 as well as raise £3.25bn of new equity by 2030, which is required to continue to operate and maintain the business.

If approved, it would be the first straightforward injection of equity since the company was privatised 34 years ago.

Thames Water last year warned bondholders, however, that there was “no certainty” that the conditions for any additional shareholder funding would be met.

In a statement, Thames Water said: “Our engineers are responding to reported sewerage issues at Eton College, Windsor. In this instance, the recent heavy rainfall, along with high groundwater levels and river flooding, caused our local sewer system to overload.

“We are sorry to staff and students who have been impacted. Our teams will be carrying out a clean-up in the coming days once the river levels recede.”