Water companies should be accountable to their customers

News this morning that Anglian Water’s operating profits to the end of the 2024/25 financial year have increased by 7.5% to a massive £495 million, following prices hikes in the last financial year of 8.6%, and with a further 19% price increase coming next year - all while the company has been polluting the rivers and chalk streams of Cambridgeshire with thousands of hours of sewage spills – beggars belief and raises serious concerns about the company’s judgement and accountability.

6,189 pollution events in Cambridgeshire’s waterways were recorded last year, up from 4,096 in 2023, an average of 17 a day, according to data from the Rivers Trust. The sewage spills ran for a combined total of 76,000 hours - an increase from 47,000 hours in 2023.

One of the worst polluting sites is in South Cambridgeshire, the Foxton Water Recyling Centre. Anglian Water has admitted that it doesn’t have the capacity to connect more homes to this facility, which also serves Barrington, without increasing pollution. And without additional capacity, or an alternative plan for wastewater treatment, this would be a barrier to new homes being built. I continue to call on Anglian Water and the government for the much-needed and significant investment in water and sewage infrastructure needed to sustain current demand both for homes and Nature, let alone accommodate the additional housing the government plans for South Cambridgeshire.

It is absolutely unacceptable that water companies should be allowed to make vast profits for their shareholders while failing customers and the environment.

Sir Jon Cuncliffe’s Water Commission interim report, released earlier this month states that the water industry needs a “fundamental reset”. The report makes it painfully clear that water companies can pollute and make profit with impunity - all at customers' expense. At the heart of the sewage scandal is a regulatory system which has failed.

The government must replace Ofwat with a new regulator, a Clean Water Authority, with proper enforcement powers to hold water companies to account and put a stop to the sewage scandal. There should be no financial gain for polluting and poor services. No loopholes. No more excuses. It’s time the government took action for fundamental reform to clean up the industry and provide the services the public deserves and pays for.