Southern Water has again been told improvement is required, as its total number of pollution incidents continues to impact its Environment Agency performance rating.
The Environment Agency (EA) has this week called on water companies to urgently improve their performance as the latest Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) for 2024 reveals the lowest ratings since the process began in 2011.
The EPA report is an independent comparison of environmental performance across the sector. Since 2011, the EA has used the EPA to rate each company in England from 1 star to 4 stars, to highlight where improvement in water company performance is required.
In 2024, the 9 companies collectively achieved just 19 stars out of a possible 36, down from 25 in 2023. Only Severn Trent Water received the top 4-star rating for industry-leading EPA performance. This is the lowest number of stars overall since the EPA process began.
The last time Southern Water was given a 3-star rating was in 2017. In 2024, it was responsible for 269 pollution incidents, 35 more than the previous year. Fifteen of these were classed as serious pollution incidents.
Dawn Theaker, the Environment Agency’s water industry regulation manager for Solent and South Downs, said:
“Everyone wants Southern Water to improve. And it can. It needs to get a grip on the concerning number of pollutions.
“Environment Agency inspections of Southern Water sites are way up, each visit providing vital feedback for the water company about its performance. If Southern Water acts on that intelligence, improvement will follow.”
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However, criteria have been regularly tightened over the years to reflect rising expectations for water company performance, so the bar is higher than ever. Based on current criteria we can see a steady trend of improvement since 2011 – but these results mark a dip in that trend.
Serious incidents – those causing significant environmental harm – have increased by 60% compared with 2023. Thames Water, Southern Water and Yorkshire Water were responsible for 81% of these serious incidents, while Northumbrian Water and Wessex Water recorded none.
Access to more data than ever before, and increased monitoring and inspections, allow for a clearer understanding of water company performance – and following the latest star ratings, the EA has urgently called for a fundamental shift in culture and behaviour across the sector.
The Environment Agency inspected 339 Southern Water sites and assets last year and another 350 inspections have been carried out since then. This is part of the goal to double the number of site and asset inspections by April 2026 and hit the overall target of 10,000 inspections.
Environment Agency Chair Alan Lovell said:
“This year’s results are poor and must serve as a clear and urgent signal for change.
“What is needed now from every water company is bold leadership, a shift in mindset, and a relentless focus on delivery.
“We will support them however we can but will continue to robustly challenge them when they fall short.”
The report cites a number of factors for the decline in performance, including the wet and stormy weather in 2024, underinvestment and poor maintenance of infrastructure, and also increased monitoring and inspection.
To ramp up its regulation the EA is investing in 500 additional staff including environment officers, data analysts, enforcement specialists and technical experts, as well as team leaders and managers. It has developed new digital systems and significantly increased the number of water company inspections – in 2024/25 the EA delivered over 4600 water company inspections and is on track to deliver 10,000 in 2025/26.
The EPA has been released on the same day as Ofwat’s Water Company Performance Report, reflecting the regulators’ commitment to a more integrated and transparent approach to water sector regulation.
The Environment Agency has recently announced that existing EPA criteria will be tightened, and new criteria introduced, to meet higher public and environmental expectations.
And yet we still get charged 92% of inbound water as wastewater charges!!!!
We are basically paying them to FLY TIP our waste.
why can’t the government bill them every time and I mean every time, they dump into seas and rivers. Lets say 92% of our wastewater charges for example per household per area.
It would generate government revenue and maybe maybe make them appreciate how we are currently feeling.
The usual platitudes from the “Environment Agency” quango staff.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Southern Water must pay their customers £49 MILLION in compensation.
Personally, I cannot wait for my. share of that £49M in my next water Bill in April ‘26, which should be at worst £0 and at best a few quid in my favour.
And the bastards put it up 46 % this year..wankers.
It’s high time they re-imbursed us.
All Southern water will do is keep increasing our bills to pay
for “”their”” incompetence.