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Financialisation and the Thames Tideway Tunnel King’s Research Portal DOI: 10.1177/0042098017736713 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication record in King's Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): Loftus, A. J., & March, H. (2019). Integrating what and for whom? Financialisation and the Thames Tideway Tunnel. URBAN STUDIES, 56(11), 2280-2296. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098017736713 Citing this paper Please note that where the full-text provided on King's Research Portal is the Author Accepted Manuscript or Post-Print version this may differ from the final Published version. If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections. 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Sep. 2021 Special issue article: Cities in an era of interfacing infrastructures: Politics and spatialities of the urban nexus Urban Studies 2019, Vol. 56(11) 2280–2296 Integrating what and for whom? Ó Urban Studies Journal Limited 2017 Article reuse guidelines: Financialisation and the Thames sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0042098017736713 Tideway Tunnel journals.sagepub.com/home/usj Alex Loftus King’s College London, UK Hug March Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain Abstract The Thames Tideway Tunnel (TTT), often referred to as the Thames super sewer, is currently one of the largest infrastructure projects underway in any European city. Costing an estimated £4.2 billion, the sewer connects London’s Victorian sewerage network with the Thames Wastewater Treatment Works at Beckton. The latter facility has been described as the UK’s Water–Energy–Food nexus pos- ter child, for its combination of desalination facilities, green energy generation and wastewater treat- ment. While physically connected to the Beckton plant, the TTT is, paradoxically, designed with an apparent disregard for the water–energy nexus. If the Beckton plant represents a nexus-based vision of integration – what Macrorie and Marvin (2016) refer to as Mode 2 Urban Integration – the TTT harks back to a view of urban integration carried from the Victorian era through to the present moment. What unites the two projects, and what undergirds the transformation of the hydrosocial cycle, is a financial model more focused on the extraction of rents from Thames Water’s consumers. Thames Water’s dismissal of genuinely integrated alternatives appears guided more by the financialisa- tion of the urban integrated ideal than by what is needed to respond to London’s broader environ- mental needs. Contesting the project, therefore, will involve slicing through the various claims to integration, going beyond the many proposals for evidence-based alternatives, and capturing the trans- formations being wrought by finance’s entry into infrastructure provision. Keywords financialisation, London, rent extraction, urban integration, water infrastructure ᪈㾱 䙊ᑨ㻛〠Ѫ⌠Ე༛⋣䎵㓗л≤䚃Ⲵ⌠Ე༛⌠ᗧ世䳗䚃 (TTT) ᱟⴞࡽ⅗⍢ᴰབྷⲴ෾ᐲส⹰䇮ᯭ亩 ⴞѻаDŽ䈕л≤㌫㔏ᡀᵜ亴䇑Ѫ 42 ӯ㤡䮁ˈ䘎᧕ҶՖᮖⲴ㔤ཊ࡙ӊᔿ⊑≤༴⨶㖁㔌઼䍍ݻ亯 Ⲵ⌠Ე༛⊑≤༴⨶লDŽਾ㘵Ⲵ䇮ᯭሶ⎧≤␑ॆ䇮ᯭǃ㔯㢢㜭Ⓚਁ⭥઼ᓏ≤༴⨶⴨㔃ਸˈ㻛〠Ѫ 㤡ഭĀ≤-㜭Ⓚ-伏૱āѻ䰤㚄㌫Ⲵԓ㺘DŽTTT ൘⢙⨶к䘎᧕ࡠ䍍ݻ亯ᐕলⲴ਼ᰦˈ൘䇮䇑ѝ৸ ᛆ䇪ᔿൠᵚ㘳㲁䘉⿽Ā≤-㜭Ⓚā㚄㌫DŽྲ᷌䈤䍍ݻ亯ᐕলԓ㺘Ҷԕ㚄㌫Ѫส⹰ⲴаփॆᝯᲟü üMacrorie ઼ Marvin (2016) 〠ѻѪĀ෾ᐲаփॆ⁑ᔿҼāüüˈ䛓Ѹ TTT ԓ㺘ҶӾ㔤ཊ࡙ӊ ᰦԓ㠣ӺⲴ䛓⿽෾ᐲаփॆ⁑ᔿDŽሶєњ亩ⴞ㚄᧕䎧ᶕǃ᭟᫁≤-⽮Պᗚ⧟䖜රⲴˈᱟањᴤޣ ⌘Ӿ⌠Ე༛≤࣑ޜਨ⎸䍩㘵ѝᣭ』Ⲵ䠁㶽⁑ᔿDŽ⌠Ე༛≤࣑ޜਨ᭮ᔳҶⵏ↓ⲴаփॆᯩṸˈⴻ ᶕᡰਇⲴᕅሬᴤཊᱟ෾ᐲаփॆ⨶ᜣⲴ䠁㶽ॆˈ㘼нᱟᓄሩՖᮖᴤབྷ㤳തⲴ⧟ຳ䴰≲DŽഐ↔ˈ 䍘⯁䘉а亩ⴞˈሶ⎹৺ợ⨶਴⿽аփॆѫᕐˈ䎵䎺Շཊѫᕐ㘼᢮ࡠสҾ䇱ᦞⲴᴯԓᙗᯩṸˈᒦ ส⹰䇮ᯭ׋㔉ᡰᑖᶕⲴਈ䶙DŽޕфᦅ᥹ࡠ䠁㶽䘋 ޣ䭞䇽 䠁㶽ॆǃՖᮖǃ෾ᐲᮤਸǃᣭ』ǃ≤࡙ส⹰䇮ᯭ Loftus and March 2281 Received January 2017; accepted September 2017 Introduction London’s hydrosocial cycle is undergoing the future, greywater. Drinking water can, the largest transformation in over a century. in short, be made from waste. Drawing on Infrastructure has been bundled and Macrorie and Marvin’s (2016) typology, the unbundled in a range of projects that re- Beckton plant can be interpreted as a site engineer and re-integrate flows of water, for Thames Water’s experiments in Mode 2 wastewater and energy. Thus, in 2012, the Urban Integration (UI) where formerly sep- first major desalination plant in the UK was arate infrastructure types are bundled constructed at Beckton, just downstream together through a new vision of the smart from the Thames Barrage. Then, in January utility. However, while physically linked to 2016, Mayor Boris Johnson opened the Lee and dependent on the Beckton plant, the Tunnel, the deepest tunnel ever constructed TTT appears to be in sharp contrast, relying in London and, at the time, the most ambi- more on the Victorian engineering legacy of tious infrastructure project ever embarked Joseph Bazalgette, and a heavily criticised on by the privatised water industry in the model of top-down, infrastructure-heavy UK. Far surpassing both of these schemes responses to complex needs. in scale and ambition is the £4.2 billion plan Both the nexus style Mode 2 UI at to construct a 16-mile ‘super sewer’ under- Beckton and the top-down Mode 1 UI in the neath the Thames. With a diameter equiva- TTT would not have emerged were it not for lent to the width of three double decker the process of financialisation that has pro- buses, this vast tunnel will transport storm- foundly influenced London’s hydrosocial water runoff and raw sewage from Acton to cycle (Allen and Pryke, 2013; Loftus and Abbey Mills, enabling the combined sewage March, 2016). This process mirrors other to be carried through the Lee Tunnel to trends identified by Halbert and Attuyer Beckton. Construction began on this super (2016) around ‘the financialisation of urban sewer, known officially as the Thames production’ (see other papers in the Special Tideway Tunnel (TTT), in 2016 and is Issue of which Halbert and Attuyer’s is a expected to last for 7–8 years. part). We will therefore argue that there is no When viewed through the lens of the necessary causal relationship between finan- Beckton plant, Thames Water – and the cialisation and Mode 2 Urban Integration: infrastructural changes it is pushing through indeed if finance can guarantee stable revenue – resembles the multi-utility firms re- streams it is just as likely to favour older emerging in other parts of the world (see visions of UI as it is to favour Mode 2 nexus Florentin, 2016). In its desalination plant, visions. In slight contrast to Williams et al. the utility has therefore addressed concerns (2014), for whom ‘the burgeoning popularity around the Water–Energy–Food nexus of the nexus concept illustrates a broader through ensuring that fats, oils and greases trend towards the increasing internalisation of can supply part of the energy needed for the environmental externalities into the processes purification of saltwater or even, perhaps in of urbanisation and capital accumulation’, Corresponding author: Alex Loftus, King’s College London, London, WC2R 2LS, UK. Email: [email protected] 2282 Urban Studies 56(11) our argument is that under financialisation conclude by questioning what is being inte- the question of environmental externalities is grated through the Thames Tideway Tunnel a relatively peripheral concern. While nexus- and for whom.1 style arguments may be appropriated to argue in favour of one form of infrastructure over another, the more important consideration Mode 1 and Mode 2 Urban for investors is how best to expand the terrain Integration over which rents can be captured. The As demonstrated by the papers in this issue, demand is therefore for more and larger infra- cities in the Global North and Global South structure rather than for necessarily smarter are witnessing a shift towards more inte- infrastructure. The arguments for more inte- grated solutions to infrastructure provision. grated, smarter alternatives to the TTT have Many utilities now work across multiple in fact been summarily dismissed in spite of domains, enabling ‘diverse ecological, finan- gaining the support of some high-profile indi- cial, operational and institutional interac- viduals, from the former head of OFWAT to tions, overlaps, interdependencies and the chief project assessor to the TTT. There hybridisations between the different infra- appears little doubt in our mind that cheaper structure domains that shape urban develop- and better solutions to the TTT exist. That ment, environments and metabolism’ these alternatives have not been pursued (Monstadt and Coutard, 2016). This trend appears to be down to the particular manner can be distinguished from earlier forms of in which financialisation has rejuvenated an integration represented in ‘the modern infra- earlier model of Urban Integration and structural ideal’ (Graham and Marvin, enabled a continuation of the supply side 2001). Macrorie and Marvin (2016) refer to Hydraulic Mission that many thought had the former as Mode 1 UI, a ‘dominant ideal collapsed at the end of the 20th century. of modern planning in the West [which] We begin by more clearly outlining the idealised the concept of the orderly unitary different types of urban integration detailed city’. by Macrorie and Marvin (2016) before con- Such a model of the unitary city was textualising the Thames Tideway Tunnel plunged into crisis at the end of the 20th cen- within the various planning decisions that tury for a variety of political, cultural and have given rise to it.
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