Water companies to pay for Environment Agency sewage enforcement costs

Water Minister Emma Hardy said: “We promised that polluters would pay for the damage they cause to our waterways.

“That’s why we’re making sure water companies – not regulators – bear the cost of enforcement action taken in response to their failings.

“Through the Water (Special Measures) Act water bosses could face imprisonment for lawbreaking and regulators now have new powers to ban undeserved bonuses and bring automatic and severe penalties against polluters.

“Today’s consultation takes us closer to shaping a water sector that delivers real and lasting improvements for customers and the environment as part of our Plan for Change.”

Alan Lovell, chair of the Environment Agency, added: “The increased regulatory powers introduced by this legislation, including cost recovery for our enforcement work, will allow us to close the justice gap, deliver swifter enforcement action and ultimately deter illegal activity.”

It comes as Yorkshire Water was recently fined £40m by fellow regulator Ofwat for “serious failures” over how it operated and maintained its sewage network.

Spills in the county have contributed to a situation in which no single river in Yorkshire is considered to be in good overall health, including Ilkley Beach, which has the highest level of untreated sewage anywhere in the UK.

The Environment Agency has given Yorkshire Water a “red” rating due to rising pollution incidents.

It comes as new House of Commons Library research has found an average of 3 billion litres of water was wasted every day in England and Wales between 2020 and 2023.

The Liberal Democrats have calculated these water leaks are costing customers approximately £396m per year.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: “It’s shameful that despite hiking up customers’ bills, water companies continue to neglect their infrastructure and this is the outcome - billions of litres of water wasted every year.

“The government cannot just sit on their hands whilst water companies make a mockery of the system. To start with, they must replace Ofwat with a new regulator that can hold these polluting companies accountable.”

Yorkshire Water has made major improvements in reducing leaks, cutting them by 25 per cent over the last year.

Director of water service delivery Dave Kaye said this was down to adding additional personnel to find and fix leaks and the use of new technology to “understand network performance”.