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Serious pollution incidents up 60% in 2024 from previous year, new report shows
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Three water companies responsible for 81% of serious incidents
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Environment Agency now has greater powers and more funding than ever to hold poor performers to account
The number of water company pollution incidents across England rose sharply last year, a new report from the Environment Agency has found. The report shows consistently poor performance from all nine water and sewerage companies in the region, with serious pollution incidents in 2024 up 60% from 2023.
The Environment Agency (EA) assesses all pollution incidents, with category 1 (major) and category 2 (significant) incidents being the most serious. In 2024, 75 category 1 and 2 incidents were recorded, a steep rise from 47 serious incidents the previous year. 81% of these serious incidents were the responsibility of just three water companies – Thames Water (33 incidents), Southern Water (15 incidents) and Yorkshire Water (13 incidents). All pollution incidents (category 1 to 3) have increased by 29%: last year water companies recorded 2,801 incidents, up from 2,174 in 2023.
The EA is particularly concerned about the increasing trend in pollution spills from pipes carrying wastewater uphill – these accounted for 20% of the serious incidents in 2024 and impacted some protected waters for wildlife and swimming.
Reasons behind the 2024 results include persistent underinvestment in new infrastructure, poor asset maintenance, and reduced resilience due to the impacts of climate change.
Last financial year, the EA carried out over 4,000 inspections of water company assets. With more inspections, the EA discovers more non-compliance: last year 24% of sites breached their permits. The EA is clear that none of these factors, including wet weather, can excuse the unacceptable number of incidents last year, and water companies must meet their legal obligations to the environment and communities or face enforcement action.
Alan Lovell, Chair of the Environment Agency said:
This report demonstrates continued systemic failure by some companies to meet their environmental targets.
The water industry must act urgently to prevent pollution from occurring and to respond rapidly when it does.
We have made significant changes to tighten our regulation of the water industry and ensure companies are held to account. With a dedicated larger workforce and increased funding, our officers are uncovering and acting on failures to comply with environmental law.
The EA’s expectations for water companies are set out in the Water Industry Strategic Environmental Requirements (WISER) guide, which states there should be a trend to zero serious pollution incidents by 2025, a reduction in all pollution incidents and high levels of water company self-reporting. It is evident that some companies are failing to meet these targets.
Under the Water (Special Measures) Act, the EA will have greater powers to take swift action against polluting companies, allowing them to close the justice gap and ultimately deter illegal activity from happening in the first place. To boost funding for water regulation, the EA is consulting on a new levy on the water sector to recover the cost of enforcement activities.
It comes as last week, Defra confirmed an £189m uplift for the EA’s water regulation, coming from charges paid by the sector rather than the public purse. This represents a 64% increase in funding since 2023/2024.
So far, the EA is on track to deliver 10,000 inspections of water company assets next year and we will continue to work closely with government and fellow regulators to hold companies to account so they deliver the environmental improvements for communities and wildlife.
The Act also requires companies to produce annual Pollution Incident Reduction Plans to address the root cause of persistent problems and prevent pollution incidents.
