Bath-based Wessex Water has dropped from an industry-leading four stars to two in its Environment Agency performance rating because of the number of pollution incidents last year.
Photo © Wessex Water
The Environment Agency yesterday (Thursday 23rd October) published its national Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) for 2024.
Despite hitting the target in all other metrics, Wessex Water scored ‘red’ for pollution incidents. This is significantly below target and puts the company at a two-star rating – requiring improvement.
The EPA report is an independent comparison of environmental performance across the sector. Since 2011, the Environment Agency has rated each company in England from one star to four stars to highlight where improvement in performance is required.
In 2024, the nine companies collectively achieved just 19 stars out of a possible 36, down from 25 in 2023. Only Severn Trent Water received the top four-star rating. This is the lowest number of stars overall since the EPA process began.
This is the third time Wessex Water has had a two-star rating in the history of the EPA. In 2024 it was responsible for 215 pollution incidents – 89 more than the previous year, although none were classed as serious.
Ed Lockington, the Environment Agency’s water industry regulatory manager for Wessex, said: “It is disappointing to see Wessex Water lose its industry leading four-star rating after just a year. But excelling in all metrics except number of pollution incidents shows how high expectations are.
“Driving down the total number of pollution incidents will go a long way to meeting that expectation again.”
Nationally, serious incidents – those causing significant environmental harm – have increased by 60% compared with 2023. Thames Water, Southern Water and Yorkshire Water were responsible for 81% of these serious incidents, while Northumbrian Water and Wessex Water recorded none.
Environment Agency Chair Alan Lovell said: “This year’s results are poor and must serve as a clear and urgent signal for change. What is needed now from every water company is bold leadership, a shift in mindset, and a relentless focus on delivery.
“We will support them however we can but will continue to robustly challenge them when they fall short.”
The report cites a number of factors for the decline in performance including the wet and stormy weather in 2024, underinvestment and poor maintenance of infrastructure, and also increased monitoring and inspection.
To ramp up its regulation, the Environment Agency says it is investing in 500 extra staff including environment officers, data analysts, enforcement specialists and technical experts, as well as team leaders and managers.
It has developed new digital systems and significantly increased the number of water company inspections – in 2024/25 the Environment Agency delivered more than 4,600 such inspections and is on track to deliver 10,000 in 2025/26.
The Environment Agency inspected 422 Wessex Water sites and assets last year – 35% more than targeted.
A Wessex Water spokesperson told the Echo: “There were no serious pollutions in 2024, largely thanks to increased sewer monitoring and AI technology helping us detect and deal with potential issues on our network before the environment was put at risk.
“Coupled with our historic strong track record of self-reporting, we’ve seen an increase in the overall number of recorded pollutions and we’re extremely disappointed not to have maintained our four-star rating.
“We recognise there is a lot more do to, which is why we’re planning a step change in the maintenance of our sewerage network and a £300 million investment in this area by 2030.”
