INSPECTORS say Southern Water requires improvement in its annual report on the environmental performance of the country’s nine water and sewerage companies during 2023.
The report, published by the Environment Agency on July 23, shows an improvement in star ratings under the Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA), but a majority of companies continue to underperform.
The report aims to highlight where improvement in water company performance is required and push for continuous improvement across the sector.
In the report, five water companies are rated as requiring improvement (two stars), one company is rated as good (three stars) and three companies achieved four stars.
Southern Water showed no improvement as they were given a two-star rating, the same as the previous year.
The report also revealed there were 13 serious pollution incidents under Southern Water, below target for self-reported incidents.
The number of serious pollution incidents increased from 44 in 2022 to 47 in 2023, remaining unacceptably high despite expectation to trend towards zero.
More than 90 per cent of these were caused by four companies (Anglian Water, Southern Water, Thames Water and Yorkshire Water).
The other key findings of Southern Water include:
- Total pollution incidents from sewerage assets increased to 1,902 with no water company achieving target (green), the first time for any metric since the EPA began in 2011. Southern Water and South West Water continued to perform significantly below target (red) with Anglian Water also rated red
- Self-reporting of all pollution incidents by water companies was 84 per cent, and 93 per cent for just pumping stations (PS) and sewage treatment works (STW) combined. This was the best since the EPA began however three water companies performed below target (amber) including a notable deterioration by Southern Water
Click here to read the Environment Agency’s full report on the nine water companies.
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.
“We frequently tighten standards to drive better performance and 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.
“Through additional resources, tightened EPA metrics and new legal powers, we will be playing our part to ensure the industry steps up on the environment.”
The EPA is the only independent comparison of environmental performance across the sector.
Since 2011, the Environment Agency has used the EPA to rate each company in England from one star to four stars.
Environment Agency said they are “constantly tightening EPA targets”, however, current performance remains well below expectations.
In light of this, the agency is toughening regulations to ensure water companies meet expectations.
Having secured an additional £55million of funding from government and water company permits, the Environment Agency is investing in a larger specialised enforcement workforce and have set aside £15million for new digital and monitoring systems to identify the root cause of issues.
In addition, the number of water company inspections will be quadrupled by the end of March 2025 to 4,000 and increased to 10,000 inspections the following year.
The agency will use the evidence gathered through these inspections to inform future performance assessments, investment plans and proactive enforcement.
Since 2015 the Environment Agency has secured 63 prosecutions against water companies, securing fines of more than £151million.
In 2023 the Environment Agency concluded four prosecutions against four different water companies, with fines of more than £6.7million.
