Will Labour be our sewage saviour or find themselves up the creek? Opinion Water companies need flexibility and lower compliance costs, not overzealous regulation that will drive private investment away, says Kitty Thompson Sewage has dominated the environmental conversation for years. Responding to public pressure, successive governments have lumbered water companies with more and more regulatory burdens in an attempt to show that they are tackling the issue. [...]
Environment Secretary pledges to halve sewage pollution by 2030 Transport and infrastructure The Environment Secretary has pledged to cut sewage pollution from water companies in half by 2030 compared to 2024 levels. Steve Reed will announce the target as he speaks to the media on Sunday morning. The government said it marks the first time ministers have set a clear target on reducing sewage pollution to which [...]
Thames Water slapped with historic £123m fine from Ofwat Transport and infrastructure Thames Water will receive a historic £123m fine from the water regulator over rule breaches tied to its wastewater operations and dividend payouts. Ofwat confirmed a final decision on Tuesday following two of its “biggest and most complex” investigations into the beleaguered utility’s operations. Thames Water and its shareholders will pay a £104.5m penalty for [...]
Bosses insist bonuses are justified for running ‘hair raising’ Thames Water May 13, 2025 Bosses at Thames Water have defended taking hefty bonus payouts as Thames Water battles to stay afloat and pollution incidents soar. Chief executive Chris Weston and Chair Sir Adrian Montague are spearheading a turnaround at the crisis-hit utility, which narrowly avoided bankruptcy earlier this year via a £3bn emergency loan from creditors. It was revealed [...]
Sick Boat Race rowers remind us why we must be tough on water companies April 13, 2025 Sick Boat Race rowers are the tip of the iceberg. Failing water companies are polluting the Thames and it's time for action, says water minister Emma Hardy.
Hooray for the super sewer! But it won’t clean up the Thames alone January 6, 2025 The super sewer is here! But it's not a silver bullet to cleaning up the River Thames, writes the Port of London Authority's Robin Mortimer.
Water bills set for hefty hike as Ofwat judgement looms December 18, 2024 The water regulator Ofwat is set to allow bills to rise by at least 21 per cent in the next five years, as part of its long-awaited decision on the financial future of the scandal-hit industry on Thursday. Ofwat will reveal its final determination for how much water firms are allowed to hike their bills [...]
Water firms to be forced to increase customer compensation for failures December 17, 2024 The changes come after a series of outages earlier in May left tens of thousands of homes in Brixham without clean drinking water.
Pennon blames sewage leaks and pollution on ‘exceptionally high’ groundwater September 26, 2024 Water firms leaked over one trillion litres of water last year, new analysis from the Observer revealed earlier in the year.
Water firms’ industry body: Dividend payouts haven’t affected infrastructure investment September 1, 2024 Water companies would be in a similar state today even if they hadn't paid out millions in dividends, the boss of their industry body claimed.