England's water companies get worst ever score over pollution

The Environment Agency has reported that England's water companies received their lowest ever combined score for environmental results in 2024. By the EA, only one of the nine English water and sewerage companies was rated as requiring change - or worse - in a yEAr when serious pollution incidents incrEAsed by 60% compared to 2023. Thames Water, the UK's largest water company, received the lowest one-star rating. Water UK acknowledged that

the results of some companies is not strong enough,

but that investment has increased since last year.

Transforming Thames is a big piece of work that will take time; it will take at least a decade to achieve the degree of change required,

a Thames Water spokesperson said.

We are facing a water system failure that has left our infrastructure crumbling and sewage leaking into our rivers,

Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said. We're taking decisive action to fix it, she said, adding new powers to prohibit unfair compensation and swift financial penalties for environmental offences.

Many companies tell us how focused they are on environmental enhancements,

the EA's chair, Alan Lovell, wrote in a prEAmble to the study. However, the findings are not shown in the records. The EA's collective rating of the nine companies for 2024 was 19 actors down from 25 actors in 2023. There were no actors in the previous year who had fewer than 22 actors. Only Severn Trent received a top rating of four stars. Both actors have two actors, requiring change, except for Thames, which has one actor for its poor appearance. Thames Water, the UK's largest water company, has been mired in financial difficulties. Itreported a loss of £1. The year ended with a 65 billion-dollar budget, but the debt pile climbed to £16. 8bn.

We know we need to do more for our customers, communities, and the planet, and that's why we've embarked on the biggest ever investment program, which has delivered the biggest upgrade to our network in 150 years,

the Thames spokesperson said. Each year since 2011, each of England's nine water companies has been given a score for their environmental results. Only seven one-star ratings have ever been given. According to the EA, its assessment criteria have been tightened over time, so its rankings do not mEAn that results have dropped since 2011, not mEAn that results had declined since 2011, and that it had seen some improvement up to 2023.

This year's findings are disappointing, and they must act as a strong and urgent warning for change,

Mr Lovell said. The economic regulator Ofwat referred to companies in England and Wales as mixed in a separate study on companies in these areas. It acknowledged progress in some areas such as internal sewer flooding, but said

there are still areas where companies and the industry must do more,

including pollution and supply disruptions for those.

Today's survey shows that water companies in England and Wales are still underperforming, particularly on serious environmental issues, exposing the privatization of the privatised water model's bankruptcy.

We urgently need a complete overhaul of this broken scheme to ensure that bill payers receive a fair treatment and that our rivers are properly protected from pollution.

The EA attributed the last yEAr's environmental results to three main factors: wet and stormy wEAther, long-standing underinvestment in infrastructure, and incrEAsed monitoring and inspection

exposing more failings. The EA will upgrade its current star ratings from failing to excellent from 2027, with a new approach ranging from one to five. The government claims that this will give a more accurate reflection of results, with businesses not expected to achieve the top rating until they "achieve the highest industry standards across the board.

Customers and activists have expressed increasing indignation with increasing bills and repeated sewage leaks, which has sparked increasing suspicion. In 2024, the Environment Agency reported in July that serious pollution incidents had increased by 60% compared to 2023. After the economic regulator Ofwat approved water company plans for billions of pounds of investment in April, bills in England and Wales increased by an average of 26% in England, Wales, and Wales. Bills will continue to rise to 2030 to assist with water purification and minimizing the amount of sewage discharged. Earlier this year, the government declared that Ofwat would be scrapped and replaced by a single regulator. That came after a landmark study of England and Wales' failing water sector, which recommended tighter control to hold water companies accountable. It was warned that there would be no quick fixes to improve the state of our rivers or bring down bills.

Customers are now paying more than ever before through water bills, and they can expect to see companies delivering on their pledges to reduce pollution and restore wildlife habitats back to life,

Mike Keil, chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water, said in rEAction to today's EA's study.