UK-based Wessex Water ordered to pay £11 million over sewage spills

Located in the Southwest of the UK, the water and sewerage company, Wessex Water has been ordered to pay an £11 million enforcement package due to failures in its management of wastewater. 

The Water regulator Ofwat has instructed that the penalty be paid by the company and its

shareholders; it is not to be paid for by customers or added to bills. Currently, Wessex Water provides services to 2.9 million customers across Bristol, Bath, Dorset and Somerset. 

Ofwat found that Wessex Water’s failure to manage flows of sewage and wastewater directly caused spills from storm overflows. This news follows a similar set of investigations made by the regulator earlier in the year, leading to payouts from major water firms totalling over £240

million.

This is not the only recent controversy to befall Wessex Water. It is also among six water companies, including Thames Water and Yorkshire Water, to have bonuses banned for company bosses over pollution issues. In the case of Wessex Water, this was triggered after it oversaw a sewage leak in 2018 that killed 2000 fish.

Pressure is mounting for water companies to be held accountable over negligence issues. Grassroots environmental movement Extinction Rebellion has called for the public to boycott the sewerage charge portion of their water bills, citing the 1,231 instances of sewage discharged into UK waterways in 2024, and the £85.2 billion in payments water companies have made to shareholders over the last 30 years.

Meanwhile, Green Party leader Zack Polanski has voiced support for the nationalisation of water companies. In an interview with the BBC, Polanski referred to the privatisation of water as an “experiment” that has “utterly failed”.

Water nationalisation is a popular policy. A YouGov survey from 2024 found that 80% of Britons believe that water companies should be run in the public sector. However, the government has shied away from committing to nationalisation.

Despite the Prime Minister’s pledge to support “common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water” during his campaign for Labour leader, Keir Starmer has since claimed that bringing water into public ownership would be too expensive. As the situation stands, British water companies made £1.7bn in pre-tax profits in 2022-2023, an increase of 82% from 2018-2019.

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By Rosamund Knowles.