BRITAIN’S water sector operating model is broken, a union warned today after firms were fined £114 million for failing to meet key targets on reducing pollution, leakage and supply interruptions.

Regulator Ofwat said today that not one company achieved its top category of “leading” in performance while Dwr Cymru, Southern, Thames, Anglian, Bristol, South East and Yorkshire Water fell into the lowest category of “lagging.”

The remaining 10 water companies were rated “average.”

Ofwat judges the performance of water companies in England and Wales each year against the “stretching” targets they set in 2019 for the next five years.

If they fail to meet these, the regulator restricts the amount of money they can take from customers.

Thames Water is the company which must return the most, more than £101 million, followed by Southern Water which must pay out £43m.

It serves 15 million people with water and wastewater while Southern Water serves around 4.6 million.

The net total industry amount of £114m is offset by some companies being rewarded, such as Severn Trent Water taking £88m and United Utilities taking £25m.

Since 2020, companies have shown improvements in reducing leakage and internal sewage, with all but one company achieving the target for unplanned outages, though progress has been too slow across the board, Ofwat said.

Over the last year, fewer than half of water companies reached their target of reducing pollution or met their commitment to leakage, with an overall decline in customer satisfaction.

Companies have also not fully invested their allowance for 2020-2023 for improving services.

GMB national officer Gary Carter said: “The water sector operating model is broken. It has failed both customers and workers in the industry.

“It must be overhauled. Water bosses must be held to account, while shareholders must pay what’s required to restore infrastructure and tackle sewage spills and leakage.

“The government and regulator have sat idly by and allowed big dividends to be paid out while our water industry crumbles.”

Ofwat said it is investigating all 11 water and wastewater companies with live enforcement cases for six companies for potential failures on sewage discharges into the environment.

They are also investigating Dwr Cymru and South West Water about the accuracy of leakage reporting and per capita consumption.

Water UK said companies are proposing record levels of investment over the rest of this decade, with detailed plans set to be published next week.

Environment Secretary Theresa Coffey said the report is “extremely disappointing.”