Pollution failures cast doubt on some water companies’ ability to deliver improvements
A steep rise in serious pollution incidents casts doubt over whether some water companies can be trusted to deliver the improvements customers are funding through water bill increases.
That’s the view of the Consumer Council for Water in response to the Pollution Incident Report published today by the Environment Agency, which reveals a 60% rise in 2024 in serious pollution incidents across England, compared to the previous year.
Three water companies – Thames Water, Southern Water and Yorkshire Water – were responsible for 81% of serious incidents.
The report shows consistently poor performance from all nine water and sewerage companies in England.
Responding to the report’s findings, CCW Chief Executive Mike Keil said:
It’s little wonder consumer trust in the water sector has hit a record low when some water and sewerage companies continue to ‘talk the talk’ but fail to ‘walk the walk’ on tackling pollution and protecting the environment. Water companies are being entrusted with an unprecedented amount of customers’ money over the next five years to help clean up our rivers, streams and seas, but this report must cast serious doubt over whether some companies can be trusted to deliver.