Former Southern Water CEO appears in court
Date: September 2026 Back in July I wrote about the Environment Agency commencing criminal proceedings against Southern Water and several former employees, including former CEO Matthew Wright, over allegations of manipulating water quality testing. That case has now moved forward: Wright and six other former employees appeared at Bromley Magistrates’ Court and the case has…
A member of the House of Lords is withholding her water bill
Date: September 2026 Jenny Jones, a Green Party peer, has written in the Guardian about withholding the sewage portion of her Thames Water bill, and her reasoning will sound very familiar if you’ve read anything else on this site. She traces her decision back to a Guardian headline from July 2025 reporting that serious pollution…
Brighton swimmers speak out on sea pollution
Date: August 2026 The Guardian visited Brighton beach this week to talk to local swimmers about sea pollution, and the story they told will be familiar to anyone who lives here. Jo Armstrong, 75, from Lewes, usually swims at Seaford every day. Over the past week the water there was too polluted to swim, so…
Environment Agency commences criminal proceedings against Southern Water
Date: July 2026 On 22 July 2026, the Environment Agency commenced criminal proceedings against Southern Water. The press release is available to read on the gov.uk website, and pasted verbatim below: EA commences criminal proceedings against Southern Water The Administrative Court has today handed down a significant judgment confirming the Environment Agency’s powers to prosecute…
Southern Water fined £7.1m for Kent sewage dumping
Date: July 2026 Southern Water has been fined more than £7 million after pleading guilty to 13 charges of illegal sewage discharge at Margate and Broadstairs between 2019 and 2021. During the sentencing at Canterbury Crown Court, Mr Justice Johnson described “overall serious failures” by the company. The judge also noted that Southern Water’s record…
You’re paying Southern Water’s fines – here’s how to complain directly to their CEO
Date: July 2026 A campaign called Dirty Water is claiming that when Southern Water is fined for illegal sewage discharges, the money doesn’t come from profits or shareholders – it comes from customer bills. Their argument is that the only money a water company has is money from its customers, which means fines are effectively…
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,…