Firm admits supplying water unfit for human consumption after nearly 150 people fell ill
A major utility company has admitted supplying water unfit for human consumption after a parasite outbreak in Devon made almost 150 people sick.
South West Water (SWW) pleaded guilty to the criminal offence relating to the cryptosporidiosis outbreak in Brixham, Devon, which affected 2,500 homes.
Continue reading...As the drama shows, private firms no longer able to pollute the coast of England of Wales just switched to rivers instead
There is a moment in Channel 4’s drama Dirty Business when Julie Maughan holds the body of her dead child and lets out an anguished cry. It is as brutal as it is compelling.
Her eight-year-old daughter Heather had just died in hospital, two weeks after playing in the sea on the beach at Dawlish Warren in Devon, where she contracted E coli O157, a bug which comes from raw sewage. She became ill with diarrhoea and blood loss. Transferred to Bristol children’s hospital, her parents agreed to switch off her life-support machine after she suffered kidney failure and brain damage.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Charlie Maynard, public interest representative in case, accuses utility of ‘retaliation’ for failed bid for costs in supreme court appeal
Thames Water argued that an MP should be forced to pay its hefty legal costs after he represented the interests of the British public in court, a move he described as “retaliation” for pushing for government control of the crisis-hit utility, the Guardian can reveal.
The UK’s highest court this week rejected Thames Water’s arguments that the Liberal Democrat MP Charlie Maynard should pay legal fees as high as £1,400 per hour.
Continue reading...MP asks for explanation from Southern Water amid concerns the spill could have dire impact on rare sea life
Southern Water is investigating after millions of contaminated plastic beads washed up on Camber Sands beach, risking an “environmental catastrophe”.
The biobeads could have a dire impact on marine life, the local MP has said, with fears rare sea life, including seabirds, porpoises and seals, could ingest them and die.
Continue reading...River Action bringing legal action against water regulator over who should foot bill for firms’ past failures to invest
Ofwat is unlawfully allowing water companies to charge customers twice to fund more than £100bn of investment to reduce sewage pollution, campaigners will allege in court on Tuesday.
Lawyers for River Action say the bill increases being allowed by Ofwat – which amount to an average of £123 a year per household – mean customers will be paying again for improvements to achieve environmental compliance that should have been funded from their previous bills.
Continue reading...Competition watchdog agrees requests from Anglian, Northumbrian, Southern, Wessex and South East to raise household bills
Water bills for millions of households in England will increase by even more than expected after the competition regulator gave the green light for five water suppliers to raise charges to customers – but rejected most of the companies’ demands.
An independent group of experts appointed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) provisionally decided to allow the companies to collectively charge customers an extra £556m over the next five years, it said on Thursday. That was only 21% of the £2.7bn that the firms had requested.
Continue reading...Inspectorate issues summons after water supply infected 140 people with diarrhoea-type disease in Brixham last year
South West Water is being taken to court over a parasite that infected the water supply in parts of Devon last summer and left dozens sick.
More than 140 people were confirmed to have the diarrhoea-type disease, which also causes stomach pains and vomiting, typically lasting for about two weeks. Four people were hospitalised at the time.
Continue reading...Company says extra payments relating to work for Kelda Holdings were covered by shareholders not billpayers
The boss of Yorkshire Water, one of Britain’s biggest water suppliers, has received £1.3m in previously undisclosed extra pay since 2023 via an offshore parent company, the Guardian can reveal.
Nicola Shaw received £660,000 from Yorkshire Water’s Jersey-registered parent company, Kelda Holdings, in the 2023-24 and the 2024-25 financial years. The size of the fees was not disclosed in the annual report of the regulated subsidiary, Yorkshire Water Services.
Continue reading...Total remuneration at companies in England and Wales – many of them under scrutiny for sewage discharge – was £15m in 2024-25
The pay of water company chief executives in England and Wales rose by 5% in the last financial year to an average of £1.1m, despite a ban on bonuses for several companies and widespread outrage over the sector’s poor performance.
Total pay reported by water companies reached £15m in 2024-25, up 5% on £13.8m the previous year, according to Guardian analysis of 14 companies’ annual reports.
Continue reading...Environment secretary backs plan to end sewage spills and financial mismanagement in England and Wales
A new water regulator will replace the powers of Ofwat, the Drinking Water Inspectorate and the Environment Agency to “reset” a sector tarnished by scandals over sewage spills and financial mismanagement, after a major review of the sector.
The government will adopt the recommendation for England and Wales made in the review it commissioned from Sir Jon Cunliffe, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, which was released on Monday. In England, the powers of Natural England will also be subsumed.
Continue reading...Announcement takes number of people hit by restrictions across England to about 8.5 million
Southern Water has become the fourth English utility to issue a hosepipe ban, taking the number of people hit by such restrictions to about 8.5 million.
The latest ban, which comes into force for about 1 million residents across large swathes of Hampshire and all of the Isle of Wight from 9am on Monday, comes after Yorkshire, Thames and South East Water announced similar measures.
Continue reading...Vessels on Rhine in Germany and Danube in Hungary forced to sail partially loaded
Low water levels after heatwaves and drought are limiting shipping on some of Europe’s biggest rivers including the Rhine and the Danube and pushing up transport costs.
As much of Europe swelters in hot temperatures, water levels in its main rivers have fallen. This is affecting shipping along the Rhine – one of Europe’s key waterways – south of Duisburg and Cologne in Germany, including the choke point of Kaub, forcing vessels to sail about half full.
Continue reading...Parliament votes on biggest shake-up to reproductive rights in England and Wales in 60 years
Casey says in the past government has talked relentlessly about the need for better data sharing between departments.
But she says there is a need to consider making this mandatory.
I was there when the tragedy of Soham happened. We knew at that point that if we had had better data sharing there’s a possibility that we might have saved those girls’ lives. There’s certaintly an absolute clarity that intelligence would have been much faster in either avoiding it or or actually finding that dreadful human being earlier.
And we’ve known that forever onwards. And so I think there is also an issue that the Home Office can’t drag their feet on, looking at police intelligence systems, given we’ve living in the 21st century. Probably everbody in this room can connect within seconds. Yet we had Befordshire police finding a young boy that was being, in my mind trafficked to London. But the data intelligence system did not make it easy for them to find that he was in Deptford and being circled and dealt with by predators.
I feel very strongly on issues that are as searing as people’s race, when we know the prejudice and racism that people of colour experience in this country, to not get how you treat that data right is a different level of public irresponsibility.
Sorry, to put it so bluntly, I didn’t put it that bluntly yesterday, but I think it’s particularly important if you are collecting those sorts of issues to get them 100% right.
When we asked the good people of Greater Manchester Police to help us look at the data we also collected – I think it’s in the report – what was happening with child abuse more generally, and of course … if you look at the data on child sexual exploitation, suspects and offenders, it’s disproportionately Asian heritage. If you look at the data for child abuse, it is not disproportionate, and it is white men.
So again, just note to everybody, really outside here rather than in here. Let’s just keep calm here about how you interrogate data and what you draw from it.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Sir Adrian Montague told select committee paying bonuses out of emergency £3bn loan was insisted upon by creditors
The chair of Thames Water could face more questions over his statement to parliament that large bonuses to be paid to senior bosses out of an emergency £3bn loan were insisted upon by creditors.
Sir Adrian Montague told the environment, food and rural affairs (Efra) select committee last week that the lenders had insisted that “very substantial” bonuses of up to 50% of salary should be paid to company executives from the controversial loan in order to retain key staff.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Treasury threat an example of ‘scare tactics’ to help force through private sector deal, sources suggest
Whitehall officials have been at loggerheads over the fate of Thames Water since the Treasury told the environment department that it would have to meet the cost of a multibillion pound temporary nationalisation.
Britain’s biggest water company recently came within days of running out of money. Thames is in a desperate race to find a buyer willing to inject cash, with the US private equity firm KKR in pole position.
Continue reading...Some analysts claim investment bank set supplier on course for collapse before selling it in 2017
The investment bank that sold Thames Water in 2017 after loading the company with debt has said that it is “very proud” of its record, even as the water utility teeters on the verge of collapse.
Australia-headquartered Macquarie led a consortium that owned Thames Water from 2006 until 2017. Macquarie has been criticised by some politicians and analysts for its control of the business, accusing the bank of setting it on course for financial collapse.
Continue reading...Employees of water firms who obstruct investigations into spills could face jail under new rules that come into force on Friday
Water company bosses have entirely escaped punishment for covering up illegal sewage spills, government figures show, as ministers prepare to bring in a new law threatening them with up to two years in prison for doing so.
Only three people have ever been prosecuted for obstructing the Environment Agency in its investigations into sewage spills, officials said, and none received even a fine.
Continue reading...Emergency repairs and quality checks for 5m people in Scotland will not be done on Tuesday and Wednesday, union says
Scottish Water staff will strike for two days from the early hours of Tuesday as a standoff over pay continues at the state-owned company.
The striking workers’ union warned that emergency repairs and quality checks to water supplied to 5 million people across Scotland would not be carried out during the action on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Continue reading...Environment secretary points to measures to stop lake being ‘choked by unacceptable levels’ of pollution
The government has said it will “clean up Windermere” after criticism over the volume of sewage being pumped into England’s largest lake.
The environment secretary, Steve Reed, pledged “only rainwater” would enter the famous body of water in the Lake District, putting an end to the situation where it Windermere was being “choked by unacceptable levels of sewage pollution”.
Continue reading...Group claims regulator signed off on ‘broken system’ making customers pay for industry’s neglect
An environmental group is to take legal action against Ofwat, the water regulator, accusing it of unlawfully making customers pay for decades of neglect by the water industry.
River Action will file the legal claim this month, arguing that bill rises for customers that have been approved by the regulator could be used to fix infrastructure failures that should have been addressed years ago.
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