More Inspections to Improve Region’s Water Companies

Almost two-thirds of significant pollution incidents in the water and sewerage industry in England last year were from infrastructure managed by the South’s two biggest operators.

Of the 47 incidents across England classed as serious, 13 involved Southern Water, up from five in 2022. The figure for Thames Water was 14, only slightly down on the 17 the year before.

Total pollution incidents with a connection to water company assets such as sewage treatment works, pumping stations, sewers and overflow pipes rose to 1,902. That was up from 1,658 in 2022. Some 30 per cent were in the Thames or Southern areas, 350 and 234, respectively.

The Environment Agency will continue to challenge the industry on performance by putting in a place a four-fold increase in inspections of water companies.

The figures have been published along with the companies’ overall rating from the Environment Agency for environmental performance. They were rated as only two stars from a possible four, unchanged from 2022. They are joint worst with three other water companies in England in the Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) for 2023.

As well as marking water companies on the number and seriousness of pollution incidents, the ratings are decided by other factors like how good a company is at reporting incidents to the Environment Agency, and compliance with permits designed to protect the environment.

Environment Agency chair Alan Lovell said: ‘For the nation to have cleaner rivers and seas, water companies must take responsibility to understand the root cause of their problems.

‘It is promising to see some companies starting to accept their responsibilities, but it is evident that the pace of improvement continues to fall short.

‘Although we do tighten the standards each year to drive better performance, we have been clear that we expect all companies to achieve, and most critically sustain, better environmental performance. As part of this we are taking forward our biggest ever transformation in the way we regulate, recruiting up to 500 additional staff, increasing compliance checks and quadrupling the number of water company inspections by March next year.’

At 69 per cent, Southern Water fell behind the industry’s 84 per cent figure for self-reporting pollution incidents. This is where water company staff tell the regulator about a problem. Almost a third were reported by a third party, which can be members of the public. Thames Water was also below the national average for self-reporting, but slightly up on Southern, with its employees informing the Environment Agency about 76 per cent of its pollution incidents.

The report shows an overall improvement in star ratings under the EPA, but the majority of companies continue to underperform.

Severn Trent Water, United Utilities and Wessex Water were all given four stars; Northumbria three; with Anglian Water, South West and Yorkshire Water joining Thames and Southern on two stars.

The EPA is the only independent comparison of environmental performance across the sector. Since 2011, the Environment Agency has rated each company in England from one to four stars. The report highlights where improvement in water company performance is required. The Environment Agency constantly tightens targets for the assessment, fundamental in driving better performance.

The results make clear that companies need to go further and faster to improve their environmental performance.

Having secured an additional £55m of funding from government and water company permits, the Environment Agency is investing in a bigger specialised enforcement workforce and new digital and monitoring systems to identify the root cause of issues.

Water company inspections will be quadrupled by the end of March 2025 to 4,000, going up to 10,000 in the year 2025/26 and to 11,500 in 2026/27. The evidence gathered will inform future performance assessments, investment plans and enforcement.

The Environment Agency has successfully prosecuted both Thames and Southern Water in the past 12 months.

Last year, a judge branded Thames Water reckless as she fined them £3.3m for polluting two rivers near Gatwick Airport with sewage in 2017, killing several thousand fish. Prosecutions of Thames Water by the Environment Agency for pollution incidents have now led to fines of £35.7m between 2017 and 2023.

In February, Southern Water was convicted after raw sewage escaped into a stream near Southampton. Almost 2,000 fish died in that incident in 2019 for which the company was fined £330,000.

The full Environmental Performance Assessment for 2023 is available at gov.uk.