Welsh Water fined £44.7m for sewage spill failures
Date: June 2026 Two significant enforcement actions against water companies were announced this week. Welsh Water has agreed to pay £44.7 million after Ofwat found it had failed to properly operate, maintain and upgrade its wastewater network, leading to excessive sewage spills. The regulator found Welsh Water had inadequate processes in place and insufficient oversight…
Hedge funds, Trump donors and your water bill – water privatisation in 2026
Date: May 2026 Thames Water is in crisis. The UK’s largest water company has accumulated £17.6 billion of debt since privatisation and is locked in talks with the government over a rescue deal. The deal could hand control of the water supply for 16 million people to a consortium of hedge funds led by Elliott…
Falmouth Town Council votes no confidence in South West Water
Date: May 2026 Falmouth Town Council has voted to declare no confidence in South West Water, following a debate about sewage pollution, rising bills and years of underinvestment in the town’s water infrastructure. The motion, proposed by councillor Dean Evans, commits the council to writing to the Secretary of State for the Environment and the…
12 of 14 river bathing sites rated “poor” – and the only way to fix them is to swim in them
Date: May 2026 A BBC investigation has found that 12 of England’s 14 official inland river bathing sites are currently rated “poor”, meaning signs advising people not to swim are in place at almost all of them. Only two locations had acceptable water quality. The contamination is linked to bacteria from human and animal faeces,…
South East Water chief executive resigns
Date: May 2026 The chief executive of South East Water (SEW), David Hinton, has resigned following months of sustained pressure from MPs, customers and the Environment Secretary. His exit comes a week after the company’s chair, Chris Train, also resigned in the wake of a damning parliamentary report. Hinton will remain in post over the…
South East Water chair resigns after MPs declare no confidence in company leadership
Date: May 2026 Although this website is about Southern Water in Brighton and Hove, I’ll share other relevent news as it’s the same story across the country. The chair of South East Water (SEW) has resigned following a parliamentary report that described the company’s leadership as an “unaccountable clique” – a phrase that could just…
Southern Water pleads guilty to further sewage discharges weeks after its record £90m fine
Date: May 2026 Southern Water has pleaded guilty to five further counts of illegal sewage discharge covering the period 2019 to 2021, including incidents that took place weeks after it was handed its record £90 million penalty for exactly the same behaviour. The charges relate to discharges at Whitstable in Kent. In one incident in…