THAMES WATER FINED £104 MILLION FOR SEWAGE FAILURES
Thames Water has been fined £104 million following a high level OFWAT investigation which uncovered a ‘catalogue of failures’ over their control and of sewage pollution.
Two other companies, Yorkshire Water was fined £47m and Northumbrian Water £17m but the Thames fine was the biggest ever imposed on a water company.
Local Liberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson, who has been campaigning against Thames Water told Teddington Town: “After years of inaction and failure under the last Conservative Government, I am pleased to see the regulator finally imposing proper fines on Thames Water and other companies.
“This should only be the start if these polluting firms are to clean up their act and regain the trust of bill payers.
“We now need a ban on bonuses and an end to bumper profits on an industry that has repeatedly let down its bill payers by letting sewage leak into our waterways.
“Local residents shouldn’t be left to pick up the tab for years of under investment. Sadly this is all a game of catch up after Conservative Ministers turned a blind eye to this environmental scandal.”
The companies were sanctioned after Ofwat’s “Flow to Full Treatment” investigation confirmed that sewage spills from emergency relief valves on the sewer network, known as storm overflows, were being used routinely rather than in exceptional circumstances with heavy rain.
Thames Water, the UK’s largest water firm, had the biggest fine because 67 per cent of its wastewater treatment works had problems with capacity and operations. It was fined 9 per cent of its turnover.
The issues at the other two companies were smaller, resulting in Yorkshire being hit with a fine worth 7 per cent of its turnover and Northumbrian Water with 5 per cent of its turnover.
“The level of penalties we intend to impose signals both the severity of the failings and our determination to take action to ensure water companies do more to deliver cleaner rivers and seas.”
Previously, the biggest fine imposed on a single water company was £90 million for Southern Water in 2021.
