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CLEAN river campaigners blasted water companies for continued pollution after they were ordered to pay back £158 million to customers today.
River Action was responding to the latest Ofwat report on water company performance and the cash they have been ordered to pay next year through lower bills.
In Ofwat’s annual performance report on water firms, the regulator said customer bills will be slashed in 2025-26 to reflect the penalties, with the total rebates calculated in December.
According to the report, water companies are falling further behind key targets for pollution and internal sewer flooding.
The penalties are separate from an ongoing Ofwat investigation into all 11 of England and Wales’s water firms, which ordered three companies to pay £168m in fines in August, in the first results of the probe.
River Action’s James Wallace said: “This might sound like a lot of money but frankly it is a drop in the ocean for polluting water companies that have handed billions in dividends and interest payments to investors.
“Water companies continue to pollute the nation’s waterways without facing the full force of the law or sufficient penalties.”
UK Environment Minister Steve Reed said: “Our waterways should be a source of national pride, but years of pollution and underinvestment have left them in a perilous state.
“We are placing water companies under special measures through the Water Bill, which will strengthen regulation including new powers to ban the payment of bonuses for polluting water bosses and bring criminal charges against persistent lawbreakers.”
But River Action claimed the Labour government’s draft Bill falls short with no duty on Ofwat to penalise pollution and called on the government to end polluting for profit.
“There is an urgent need for the government to end polluting for profit, and ensure regulators have the necessary funding from the Treasury to enforce existing laws,” Mr Wallace said.
GMB national officer Gary Carter said: “If the private sector wants to run water companies, then shareholders should be investing their own money, not expecting bill payers to bail them out.
“Water companies are not going to change themselves. The government needs to go further and faster and fundamentally reform the whole sector.”