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Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water face £168m fines by the trade regulator over historic sewage spills.
The proposal will now go to public session and is a part of Ofwat’s largest ever investigation into water firm efficiency.
The announcement comes amid rising public anger over the environmental and monetary efficiency of some water corporations.
Sewage spills into England’s rivers and seas greater than doubled final yr.
Ofwat’s investigation has seemed into whether or not the three corporations have been offering clients with the extent of service they’re entitled to beneath the regulation.
It has discovered the three corporations didn’t adequately spend money on and preserve their networks, resulting in repeated releases of uncooked sewage into the nation’s waterways.
On Tuesday it proposed fines of £47m for Yorkshire Water and £17m for Northumbrian Water. For Thames Water it’s proposing the biggest high-quality on file of £104m.
The regulator’s chief govt, David Black, stated: “Ofwat has uncovered a listing of failure by Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water in how they ran their sewage works and this resulted in extreme spills.”
This announcement follows a BBC investigation earlier this year that revealed sewage had potentially been released illegally 6,000 times in 2022 by England’s water companies in breach of their permits.
Releasing raw sewage has the potential to significantly damage the environment and poses a risk to human health for those swimming in a river or sea where sewage is being discharged.
Ofwat can fine companies up to 10% of their annual sales. In the case of Thames Water, the proposed fine is 9% of sales, which Mr Black told the BBC “displays the severity of the offences”.
The regulator found that more than two-thirds of Thames Water’s wastewater treatment works had operational issues, and that most of Yorkshire Water’s wastewater treatment works had regularly spilled sewage into the environment since 2018 pointing to a “systematic challenge”.
A Thames Water spokesperson said: “We take this matter very significantly and have cooperated at each stage of Ofwat’s investigation. We regard all untreated discharges as unacceptable, even when they’re permitted.”
Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water said they were disappointed by Ofwat’s decision.
Ofwat continues its investigations into a further eight water and wastewater companies in England and Wales for similar issues, with further updates expected in the coming year.
“For too lengthy, failure to spend money on our very important water infrastructure has been unchecked,” said Tessa Wardley, director of advocacy at environmental charity Rivers Trust.
“It appears extremely doubtless that there’s extra to come back when investigations into the opposite eight water corporations is concluded.”
Water companies have been proposing to raise customer bills by more than 44% over the next five years to pay for improvements in water infrastructure.
Thames has argued for an increase of £191 over the next five years but Ofwat has only agreed to £99.
But there has been concern from environmental campaigners that the money from customers’ bills is not being sufficiently invested in upgrades and they have called for a ban on executive bonuses.
The government is currently consulting on plans to ensure that money earmarked for upgrades cannot be used to pay salaries or dividends.
On Tuesday, Environment Secretary Steve Reed said: “I welcome Ofwat’s action today. The unacceptable destruction of our waterways should never have been allowed – and it is right that those responsible for illegally polluting our rivers, lakes and seas face the consequences.
“This government will fundamentally reform the water sector.”
The risk of recent fines will elevate questions on how a lot some corporations can afford to spend money on infrastructure upgrades.
Thames Water has been fighting money owed of £14.7bn.
It introduced final month it solely had sufficient money to fund operations till the top of May 2025 – and was already liable to having the credit standing of its money owed downgraded.
Colm Gibson, a former water trade govt, and now managing director at consultancy Berkeley Research Group advised the Daily News: “Thames is in a particularly precarious financial position and it’s trying to negotiate for more equity to come in to sort itself out.
“And if it has to pay this high-quality on high of all of the others, that simply makes the duty tougher, and its already a tough process.”
The corporations can enchantment, and Ofwat can scale back the high-quality if the water corporations display they’re taking measures to sort out sewage discharges.
