Emma Reynolds is understood to have written to water regulator Ofwat on Monday warning the current bid tabled by Thames Water creditors would place an “undue burden” on customers.

The Government’s misgivings over the deal comes as Ofwat is said to have been close to accepting the offer from bidding consortium London & Valley Water, which has proposed injecting £10 billion into debt-laden Thames Water in return for any new fines over sewage leaks being waived for four years.

READ MORE: Thames Water ‘would need to pay £749m’ under controversial deal

Thames Water – Britain’s biggest water supplier with 16 million customers – is hoping to secure the deal to stave off temporary nationalisation after being left close to collapse by nearly £20 billion of debt.

It has also faced a series of hefty fines for its poor environmental performance in recent years.

A rescue bid by creditors is seen as the final realistic option on the table to avoid being placed into the Government’s so-called special administration regime after a previous rescue deal with US private equity giant KKR collapsed in May last year.

Administrators have already been lined up to step in if needed.

Ms Reynolds’s criticism of the deal centres on concerns that customers will lose out under the creditors’ offer, according to The Times, which first reported the details of the letter.

It is thought she raised worries that the creditors’ proposal was “weak”.

But the Government has repeatedly said it prefers a “market solution” over temporary nationalisation.

Ofwat and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have been approached for comment.

The letter from Ms Reynolds comes in a difficult week for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, with Andy Burnham – the mayor of Greater Manchester – hoping to win the Makerfield by-election on Thursday, which would pave the way for him to launch a leadership challenge.

Mr Burnham recently signalled he could bring in a 10-year plan to renationalise the water industry, saying reform is needed to put the public interest first.

A spokesman for Thames Water said: “We remain of the view that a market-led solution is the best way to secure the long-term stability needed to continue improving performance and advancing our turnaround plan, for the benefit of customers, the environment and our stakeholders.

“Our priorities remain on providing safe, resilient services for customers, supporting our colleagues and working closely with suppliers, government and regulators.”

It had been expected that the Government would give its backing to the Thames Water takeover this summer, with the utility fast running out of cash and said to be facing collapse within months if a deal is not forthcoming.

London & Valley Water’s proposed deal would see it inject £3.35 billion of new equity into Thames Water and up to £6.55 billion in new debt.

But it is said that Thames Water would also have to pay nearly £750 million to its creditors, lawyers and advisers as part of the restructuring.

TWM Solicitors has deployed 10ZiG thin client devices across its offices as part of a migration to Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop. The rollout covers about 240 devices for the Surrey law firm’s 240 staff across three sites.

The project was part of a broader overhaul of the firm’s desktop and back-end systems, carried out by a four-person IT team over several months. Alongside the move from Microsoft Remote Desktop Services to Azure Virtual Desktop, the firm shifted back-end infrastructure into Microsoft Azure, upgraded to Microsoft 365, introduced new practice management software and rolled out dual monitors across desks.

For the firm, the move marked a shift away from on-premise systems towards cloud and software-as-a-service tools. The aim was to reduce capital spending, move to a more predictable operating cost model and simplify the delivery of new technology services to staff in the office and at home.

Azure Virtual Desktop became the main desktop virtualisation platform, reflecting the firm’s use of software built largely within the Microsoft environment. Session hosts are provisioned from a single image applied across endpoints, giving the firm centralised patching, tighter security controls and the option to rebuild infrastructure if needed.

Nerdio manages the scaling of session hosts during the day, allowing the firm to match computing use to demand. The approach is designed to avoid paying for unused cloud compute.

Endpoint overhaul

The desktop migration also required new endpoint hardware. TWM wanted devices that could support dual 24-inch monitors, run Windows drivers for SpeechWrite digital dictation software and be managed remotely across sites.

The firm sourced the devices through Softcat, a reseller it has worked with for more than a decade, and after a trial bought about 240 units running Windows IoT LTSC. The devices are configured to open Azure Virtual Desktop sessions and hold no local user data, so failed units can be replaced without data recovery or software reinstallation.

Alan Barrett, Head of IT at TWM Solicitors, outlined the technical requirements behind the decision. “Our requirements were clear: new desktop hardware needed to drive dual 24-inch monitors at full resolution, support Windows drivers for our SpeechWrite digital dictation software and provide a robust, centralized remote management platform to keep devices updated without requiring physical site visits,” he said.

The endpoints are also set up to handle Microsoft Teams and Zoom calls running within Azure Virtual Desktop by using local device resources where needed. That was important for a legal practice with staff working in a hybrid pattern and relying on voice and video tools as well as dictation software.

Barrett said the shift changed the role of the desktop device rather than reducing its importance. “When we moved to AVD, the endpoint became both less important and more critical at the same time,” he said. “Less important because all the compute is now happening in the cloud; more critical because it’s the device that everyone uses to do their work. 10ZiG has been the right answer on both counts. They’re so low maintenance that they’ve essentially become invisible, which is exactly what you want from an endpoint.”

Rollout process

Before shipment, the IT team worked with 10ZiG to create a standard device image with the required software, drivers and settings. The devices then arrived configured and ready to connect to the network, reducing work during installation.

That proved useful during a large-scale office swap-out. “This saved us a lot of time during the rollout, which was welcome given the physical effort involved: unpacking computers and monitors, assembling thin client bases and monitor arms, fitting everything to desks, then removing old equipment and recycling packaging. At our largest office in Guildford, we replaced more than 100 machines and monitors in a single day,” Barrett said.

He added that preparation before the rollout was central to avoiding disruption for staff returning after the changeover. “I remember saying to our Managing Partner afterwards: where else have you worked where so many computers have been changed over a weekend and everything worked on Monday?” he said.

Cost and management

TWM now uses 10ZiG Manager to power devices on and off remotely, deploy patches and maintain the same configuration across its offices. The firm said central management has reduced the need for engineers to travel between sites, saving hundreds of hours of IT time as well as transport costs.

The economics of the hardware also formed part of the case for the move. The firm put the device cost at about £450 each and estimated a lifespan of eight or nine years, which works out at roughly £50 a year per unit.

Barrett said that translated into low ongoing support demands. “When you break it down, we’re paying roughly £1 a week for a device with very little day-to-day management required,” he said. “We’ve made the right decision to invest in 10ZiG modernized thin clients. They’re easy to manage, easy to maintain and the 10ZiG team has been excellent to work with. The burden of desktop management, which used to be time-consuming, boring and frustrating, has simply disappeared.”

James Broughton of 10ZiG said the project reflected a wider pattern among organisations moving desktop environments into the cloud. “Organisations moving towards Microsoft AVD and cloud-based work environments increasingly need endpoint solutions that are secure, simple to manage and operationally efficient,” he said. “By combining our thin client endpoints with Microsoft AVD and 10ZiG Manager, TWM Solicitors is an excellent example of how organizations can modernize desktop infrastructure while simplifying IT operations and supporting long-term cloud transformation strategies.”

AI has become more than just a bet on the future. Now, it’s how work gets done, especially with Webex.

Peter Diamandis once remarked how there’ll be two kinds of companies by the end of this decade. Those that are fully using AI, and those that don’t survive.

The gap is opening between organisations that are putting AI into everyday work, and those still treating it like something to explore in the future.

One group is moving much faster, making clearer decisions, and getting more done. The other is stuck in the pilot stage, building proofs of concept, and talking about what might be possible.

It’s the focus, rather than the technology, that’s changing.

AI has moved on from being a discussion about tools and started to become a conversation about execution.

These are now the key questions to consider:

• Where does AI show up in the average working day?
• Who uses it, and how often?
• Does it make work easier, or just add something else to manage?

Communication is where AI either works or fails

For most organisations, the answers sit in the communication layer. Think about meetings, messages, calls, customer conversations.

This is where time disappears. Decisions get made here, and customer experience can either be won or lost.

If AI doesn’t improve these moments, there’s rarely any change. That’s why the role of Webex itself is starting to shift.

Webex’s move from collaboration platform to AI execution layer

AI tends to fall when it lives outside the workflow. When it’s another platform to log into, or something owned by a small innovation team, usage tends to drop off. People default back to the familiar ways of working.

Webex takes an entirely different route by building AI into the tools people already use daily.

That shows up in practical ways. Notes, actions and follow-ups are automatically captured during meetings. Live transcriptions and summaries cut down admin tasks and reduce any confusion.

There’s also smarter messaging and collaboration processes that helps teams reach decisions faster. Alongside that, customer experience capabilities that improve routing, insight, and resolution also come into effect.

None of this is about adding clever features for the sake of it. It’s about giving people time back and reducing friction within work.

Why do partners make the difference?

Technology on its own doesn’t change behaviour. Partners do.

They understand how teams work, where the bottlenecks sit, and what outcomes customers really care about. That context is what turns AI from an idea into something people genuinely use.

Webex gives partners a way to embed AI into daily operations rather than selling it as an additional tool. It also moves the conversation away from licences and towards results.

What kind of results? How about shorter sales cycles, or better customer engagement. There’s a potential for higher employee productivity alongside clearer, more confident decision‑making.

That’s where real differentiation starts to appear.

What happens when AI is done properly

When AI is built into the workflow, the impact becomes obvious.

Sales teams spend more time with customers and less time writing up calls. Service teams can resolve issues faster because they have the full picture right in front of them.

Technology leaders see the patterns and insight instead of piecing together fragmented information. Employees also spend less time on low‑value admin tasks and more time on work that matters.

AI suddenly stops feeling like a headline topic and starts feeling like a real part of the working day.

A divide that’s already taking shape

Access to AI is an inevitability. What will really matter is who uses it in a way that genuinely changes business performance.

Webex, for example, is moving beyond being just a UC platform. It’s becoming an intelligence layer across meetings, messaging, voice, and customer experience.

Right now, AI integration into Webex is improving how people communicate and make meaningful decisions.

For partners, there’s an opportunity to lead customers through decisive change rather than just sell another product.

For customers, AI becomes something to rely on as opposed to just another tool to experiment with.

For employees, it’s the difference between feeling overloaded and feeling supported.

The divide Diamandis talked about? Turns out it’s already here. The companies that will pull ahead will be the ones quietly building AI into how work gets done. It all starts with the platforms that people are already using to communicate.

Get in contact with Gamma Communications and learn how Webex is transforming how businesses collaborate and prepare for the future of work.