Southern Water among worst offenders for sewage spills, say Lib Dems

Southern Water has been named among the worst-performing companies for sewage-dumping in the past year, according to new data released by the Liberal Democrats.

The Worthing-based firm, which supplies homes in Salisbury, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Sussex and Kent, recorded 108 breaches of environmental permits in 108.

That was the joint second-most of the nine companies in England recorded, along with United Utilites.

Severn Trent was the highest with 132.

The party has long called for a crackdown on water companies who are found guilty of breaching their environmental permits and for executives' bonuses to be banned.

In 2023, across the nine water companies in England, 695 breaches were recorded, a freedom of information (FOI) request by the party revealed.

The Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) previously revealed that 554 breaches were made in 2022; 273 in 2021; and 841 in 2020.

Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson Tim Farron said:

"This is a national scandal that is only getting worse. These damning new figures show the last Conservative government was letting water firms get away with it to a shocking level.

"These polluting firms are breaching their permits on an almost daily basis, all whilst pocketing massive bonuses and profits. Frankly, the whole thing stinks.

"The new Government has no time to waste in punishing these disgraced firms. This should start with an immediate ban on all exec bonuses, but go much further with a complete reform of the industry.

"The country will not stand for this any longer after years of Conservative government failure. It is time for an end to profit before the environment."

A permit breach can occur due to water companies discharging from storm overflows despite there being no rain or snow, or incidents relating to sewage treatment works.

A Defra spokesperson said:

"The new Government will never look the other way while water companies pump record levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas.

"In the first week we announced immediate steps to begin the work of cleaning up our waterways including ringfencing investment so it can never be diverted for bonuses, dividends or salary increases.

"We will go further putting water companies under tough special measures. Under the Water (Special Measures) Bill, law-breaking water bosses will face criminal charges and a ban on their bonuses if they don't clean up their act, and we'll bring in private sector investment to repair our broken sewage system once and for all."

A Southern Water spokesperson said:

“Last year saw some of the wettest weather on record, which caused several significant surface water flooding events and resulted in extremely high groundwater levels – both of which put extra pressure on our sewer network when these extra volumes mixed with wastewater.

“In areas of our region where groundwater poses the biggest challenge, forcing its way into our pipes, our network can be overloaded slowly, even when not raining. This activates storm overflows to avoid flooding homes and businesses.

To deal with the issue we’ve embarked on major projects using innovative technology to reline network with polymer sleeves and use a gel to do the same for our customers.

"We’re also building wetlands at key sites to provide another layer of treatment in high ground water areas."

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