Business | Business News Campaigners have reacted with fury to proposed water bill increases for households amid the sewage pollution scandal and cost-of-living crisis. Regulator Ofwat has issued draft proposals to put up bills by £19 a year on average, or £94 over five years, a third less than the £144 average requested by water companies. Ofwat said its proposals approved a tripling of investment to make sustained improvement to customer services and the environment, including a 44% reduction in sewage spills from storm overflows, compared with levels in 2021, and plans for nine reservoirs to reduce water taken from rivers.
But while Water UK, which represents water companies, complained that Ofwat has “failed to be realistic about the levels of investment needed”, and urged the regulator to let them get on with an unprecedented overhaul of the country’s water infrastructure, campaigners had a very different take. Sewage spills from water infrastructure have contributed to a situation in which no single river in England is considered to be in good overall health, and beauty spots including Windermere in the Lake District have been polluted. Storm overflows – which release untreated wastewater into rivers and seas when there is heavy rain to prevent sewers becoming overwhelmed – dumped sewage into the environment 464,056 times and for more than 3.
6 million hours in 2023. Water utilities have also been hit by multimillion-pound fines for repeated and damaging ill.
