Surfers Against Sewage paddle-outs involve local communities coming together to protest against water companies dumping sewage in the oceans and rivers they use for watersports and swimming. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
Ofwat is opening enforcement cases into four more water companies, meaning it is now investigating every single water and wastewater firm in England and Wales for the mismanagement of their networks and treatment.
The notices follow a what Ofwat described as a “detailed” analysis of information on firms’ environmental performance and data about the regularity of their spills from storm overflows.
The regulator believes the four firms may not be fulfilling their obligation to protect the environment and minimise pollution, meaning that it is now investigating all 11 water companies in England and Wales.
Investigations into Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, South West Water and Thames Water, which last week was effectively placed into special measures by Ofwat, are ongoing from 2022, while Southern Water is still subject to monitoring following a case that dates back to 2019.
David Black, Ofwat’s chief executive, said: ““The fact that Ofwat now has enforcement cases with all 11 of the wastewater companies in England and Wales demonstrates how concerned we are about the sector’s environmental performance.
Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Siân Berry. Image by Kelly Hill, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0.
Responding to the publication of OFWAT’s a draft verdict on water companies’ five-year spending plans and bill increases to 2030, Green Party MP, Siân Berry said:
“We’re today calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to put all water companies into public hands.
“The provision of such a basic human right should not be based on profit.
“The idea that water companies will hike bills while so many people are struggling to get to the end of the month is horrific. Meanwhile, some companies, like Thames Water, are still paying shareholder dividends, which is deplorable.
“Public ownership is a matter of both social and environmental principle. But, as today’s verdict from OFWAT shows, it is also a pragmatic necessity.
“Why not take decisive action and show real leadership by saying that all water companies should be in public hands?
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (centre front) next to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner (front row, third from left) and Chancellor Rachel Reeves (front row, fourth from right) stand with Labour Party MPs, some of whom won seats in the 2024 General Election, at Church House in Westminster, central London, July 8, 2024
CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves is right to say that steep increases in our water bills are a “bitter pill to swallow” — especially since her government could stop them if it wanted to.
Maybe its reluctance to take the obvious step — nationalisation — is linked to the lucrative rewards waiting for former ministers who play ball. After all, Water UK, the trade association lobbying for still steeper rises, is headed by former Labour minister Ruth Kelly.
Water UK slams Ofwat’s refusal to endorse its own proposed increases as “the biggest-ever cut in investment.”
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No other country has surrendered its water to private companies in this way and it is unlikely that any will, given that the outcome here has been poisoned waterways, sewage-strewn beaches and soaring bills. Earlier this year, over half the people polled said the sewage scandal would affect their vote. It may well have driven the Tory collapse across swathes of southern and coastal England. An even higher proportion, 69 per cent, want water back in public hands.
Labour says the cost of renationalisation is prohibitive and lands the public with private-sector debt.
Privatised water companies discharged raw sewage into rivers and the sea around England and Wales for 3.6 million hours in 2023 – double the previous year’s total. For a sense of how bad the problem is today, check this map of the south-east of the UK which shows how much sewage water companies are dumping right now and for how long.
As a water researcher, I am happy to see water quality high on the political agenda but aggrieved that it is because of the sewage scandal that has engulfed the UK, and especially England and Wales, in the past couple of years.
Companies have discharged more raw sewage than they are legally allowed to and the Environment Agency, as responsible regulator in England, has been unable to monitor and control offenders as its environmental protection budget was halved between 2010 and 2020. Water firms have neglected to invest in new and enlarged wastewater treatment works for decades and so the ageing system is struggling to meet demand.
An angry public demands cleaner water and changes to how water companies are regulated and run. All major political parties have at least something to say about it in their pitch to voters ahead of July 4 general election.
No clear blue water between Tories and Labour
The Conservative party doesn’t mention the word “sewage” in its manifesto. The party instead highlights what it sees as the government’s achievements in reducing leaks from water pipes, preventing supply interruptions and raising the proportion of designated bathing water sites classified as “good” or “excellent” from 76% in 2010 to 90% in 2023.
These “achievements” are misleading, however. Most of the 451 designated bathing water sites are around the coast, not rivers. Bathing sites only occupy a small stretch of a river (of which many are rated poorly) and most sewage dumpings take place elsewhere along the river, which is not accounted for in the statistics the Tories present.
The party would ban executive bonuses if companies commit a serious criminal breach (dumping sewage, for example) and use fines to invest in river restoration. The Tories evidently expect pollution to keep increasing. Forget working on the cause of the problem and preventing “serious criminal breaches” from happening in the first place.
The Labour party has said it will force water companies to “clean up our rivers” by putting them under “special measures” but does not explain what this means. Like the Conservatives, Labour wants to impose fines on water companies, block the bonuses of executives and improve independent monitoring. Again, Labour offers no further detail on what that would entail.
This is in stark contrast to election campaigns fought under Jeremy Corbyn, when Labour argued for renationalising the water industry.
Both Labour and the Tories propose fines which have proven to be no deterrent. The Environment Agency fined Southern Water – the company that provides water and wastewater services to more than four million people across Hampshire, Sussex and Kent – a record £90 million in 2021, yet illegal sewage discharges by water companies have only increased since then.
Ultimately, fines are a capitulation before the real problem of preventing illegal sewage discharges.
Lib Dems a bit bolder
Banning water companies from dumping raw sewage into rivers and giving them a duty to protect the environment is the goal of the Liberal Democrats.
The Lib Dems want to transform water companies into public benefit companies (but there’s no explanation of how these would differ from their present privatised form) and would ban bonuses for water company executives until rivers are clean (but there’s no definition of “clean”).
Ofwat, the economic regulator for the water industry, would be replaced with a new regulator with powers to prevent sewage dumping. The party also wants a sewage tax on water company profits to enforce existing regulations more effectively, set legally binding targets on the reduction of sewage dumping, create wetlands to stymie flooding and strengthen local authorities monitoring water quality – it’s unclear how this would meld with a “tough new regulator”, though.
Greens are pro-nationalisation
The Green party wants to bring water services back into public ownership along with Britain’s big five energy companies.
The Greens are the only ones putting numbers to the problem. The party estimates renationalisation would cost £5 billion and investment into water and sewage infrastructure a further £12 billion.
The experiment of privatisation has failed, they argue, and water should be treated as a public good.
Reform’s 50% offer
Reform UK does not mention the sewage scandal directly, but its manifesto proposes bringing 50% of each utility back into public hands. According to the party, this would save £5 billion across all utilities over five years.
Welsh water for Wales
Plaid Cymru wants more public control of Welsh resources, including water.
Lots of water stored in Welsh reservoirs goes to England, especially Birmingham and Liverpool. Plaid Cymru would align legislative competence over water with the geographical boundaries of Wales. In other words, Wales wants to fully take care of its water and improve its quality.
The SNP does not mention freshwater in its manifesto. Sewage dumping appears to be less common in Scotland, where the water industry is publicly owned. However, reports suggest official estimates are too low.
Northern Ireland’s Sinn Féin does not discuss water in its manifesto. The DUP acknowledges pollution in the UK’s largest inland lake, Lough Neagh, and asks for a concerted effort to preserve its water quality.
Watered down
The smaller parties have my sympathies for bringing forward bolder plans for water management in the UK. Unfortunately, both the Conservatives and Labour are very uninspiring in their hesitance to prevent pollution.
If better regulation, monitoring and enforcement is the most a new UK government will do then this will require a bigger budget for the Environment Agency, at least. Measuring the volume and composition of sewage outflows, not just the duration of pollution events, would also provide more accurate information.
Ofwat, the economic regulator for the water industry, needs reform too. The UK water industry is slow to innovate and misses opportunities to do so. As I have written before, the UK water industry is a small sector with a revolving door that leads former regulators to join the regulated, and vice versa. This creates obvious conflicts of interest and stymies change.
The experience of England and Wales implies that privatised water utilities are a bad idea. Margaret Thatcher believed this model would find admirers globally, but since the late 1980s, no other country has followed suit. In fact, the opposite has tended to happen: after a failed privatisation, Paris returned its water supply services to public hands.
Privatisation has excluded the public from discussing water management in the past 35 years. It is time to reconnect people with the very resource we all need to survive. Capping a CEO’s bonus does not go far enough.
