Southern Water scores joint-lowest rating across water industry for environmental performances

The Environment Agency (EA) has revealed today (Wednesday, July 24) that 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 – Southern Water and Thames Water.

The government agency said that 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.

An EA spokesperson said: “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 were 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.

John Penicud, director for wastewater Operations at Southern Water, said the company reduced pollutions by 35 per cent ‘despite the wettest winter on record’ and has been given a ‘two-star EPA rating accordingly’.

He added: “Despite our turnaround plan demonstrating strong progress, the number of serious pollutions is unacceptable, and we accept that there is a lot more to do as we urgently work to achieve a three-star rating.

“To help us on this journey we are continuing to make improvements and innovations. One example is the introduction of 22,000 radar devices in manholes across our 45,000km sewer network which will help us proactively detect issues before they become pollutions.”

Thames Water said protecting the environment is ‘fundamental to what we do’ and the company ‘recognise our performance in preventing pollutions is still not good enough’.

A spokesperson added: “Our region has experienced the wettest winter since records began, resulting in exceptionally high groundwater and river levels. This has at times overwhelmed our sewer system and has led to discharges into rivers.

“More investment is needed across the entire sector, as infrastructure ages and demand on it increases. That’s why we’ve asked for increased investment in the next regulatory cycle between 2025-2030 so we can improve outcomes for customers, and the environment.

“Our River Health Plan highlights our ambition to deliver these changes. We are upgrading 250 of our sewage treatment works to reduce the number of storm discharges to protect the environment and eliminate the risk of incidents in the future.”

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

Environment Agency chairman 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, the EA said.

"This is where water company staff tell the regulator about a problem,” a spokesperson explained.

"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 said it ‘constantly tightens targets’ for the assessment, fundamental in driving better performance.

It added: “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 the company £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.

Richard Manning, general counsel and company secretary at Southern Water, said: "We are very sorry that this unacceptable historical incident in 2019 led to environmental damage.

"As soon as we became aware of this event, we took action to reduce its impact on the local area, and have since co-operated fully with the Environment Agency’s investigation, pleading guilty at the first opportunity.

"In acknowledgement of our role, we have already compensated the YMCA and set up a £140,000 grant scheme with the Groundwork South Trust to aid habitat improvement.

"Learning from this incident also led to a comprehensive review of our more than 3,000 unmanned pumping stations to ensure those at highest risk were fit for purpose, leading to a rolling programme of improvements to equipment and monitoring technology which has already cost more than £13 million.

“We have learnt from this incident and welcome the judge's comments that the company has made good progress in its turnaround plan since 2019 and more recently.

“Five years on from this event we have a new leadership team, new shareholders and we are spending £3bn – the equivalent to £1,500 per household – between 2020 and 2025 to improve performance."

The full Environmental Performance Assessment for 2023 is available here.