What is the Government doing about our water and the sewage spills?
With the summer holidays coming to an end, and a season of drought, the water companies have been under scrutiny for more sewage spills in our seas and rivers.
In July, hundreds of sewage spills were reported across England when heavy rain overwhelmed water companies’ infrastructure – popular seaside resorts were polluted with raw sewage when it was discharged through ‘storm overflows’ from Northumberland to Cornwall. Bathing spots that 1000s of tourists flock to enjoy being by water, be it our lakes, rivers or seas, have seen unprecedented amounts of sewage spills.
At BedsGOVET, we are seeing increases in E-coli in the River Great Ouse, places where people swim, paddle board or canoe are all impacted and can be deemed dangerous to human health.
The Environment Agency released figures show a 60% increase in in water pollution incidents in the UK from 2023 to 2024. In 2025, water companies spilled sewage 450,398 times!
The Environment Secretary, Steve Reed has pledged to halve the number of sewage spills across England by 2030. But can we really wait that long?
Let’s look at what’s been done so far:
• New legislation with the Water (Specials Measures) Act banned unfair bonuses for ten polluting water bosses this year and threatened prison sentences for law-breaking executives.
• Ringfencing customers’ bills for upgrades: customer bills to be used for investment on new sewage pipes and treatment works – not on shareholder payments or bonuses.
• Ofwat has approved a £104bn investment is ringfenced by water companies to upgrade crumbling water and sewage infrastructure over the next five years, aiming at a 50% reduction of spills from storm overflows. Water companies plan to invest more than £11bn, more than triple the current level of investment to end sewage spills. (Water UK, water.org.uk ) but this will be through increased water bills!
• New bill underway reviewing the National Framework for Water Resources 2025 to look at how to respond for the need of greater water resources and managing resources more effectively.
• Largest budget for water regulation: the Environment Agency received a record £189 million to fund hundreds of enforcement officers to inspect and prosecute pollution water companies.
• The announcement in July that Ofwat is to be abolished and a new, single, powerful regulator to be established to cut water pollution in England’s rivers, lakes and seas, and protect families from huge increased bills.
The new regulator will take responsibility of water functions across Ofwat, Environment Agency, Natural England and Drinking Water Inspectorate, ending complexity that gets in the way of delivering for customers.
What does it really mean?
Overall, the Government looks to be moving ahead with their plans, and some good initiatives seem to be taking place.
• However, the issue still lies with what the water companies must regulate against. Currently, they do not need to actively test for E-coli – which is primarily the test that shows human faeces. We need to push for the right tests, so that we can ensure that our waters are safe for use.
• It has been reported that bonuses for bosses are being circumvented by issuing larger pay increases rather than through dividends. Yorkshire Water was one of six firms banned from paying “unfair” bonuses to their executives this year.
Yorkshire Water boss paid extra £1.3m by parent company – BBC News reported CEO, Ms Shaw had received £1.3m in previously undisclosed extra pay since 2023 from Yorkshire Water’s parent, Kelda Holdings.
• It has not been made clear how long water companies will continue to self-monitor, which means nothing will really change in terms of the sewage spills.
David Henderson, CEO of industry body Water UK, told the BBC: “We absolutely accept that self-monitoring is not helping to instil trust and so we would like to see an end to it, and in place of it a more robust, third-party system.”
The Cuncliffe report states that a new Water Ombudsman will be created but there is no urgency placed on giving this task back to the Environment Agency in the interim period whilst they create and develop the new Water Ombudsman.
