Two of Britain's biggest water companies, Thames Water and Anglian Water, are facing more than 50 criminal investigations between them as part of a government crackdown on sewage dumping. The utilities account for the bulk of a record 81 investigations into water companies between last July's general election and March 2025, according to new data.
New powers to claw back the costs of the Environment Agency investigations will be used, meaning the 'polluter will pay', sources told the Guardian. This could prove costly for Thames, the heavily indebted supplier that tops the charts with 31 active investigations and will likely have to fund the majority of them.
Thames Water, Britain's biggest water company, recently came within five weeks of running out of funds and attempted to persuade the water regulator to let it off hundreds of millions of pounds of fines. Significant further costs could risk tipping it into special administration, a form of nationalisation. The company, which has 16 million customers and 8,000 employees, is labouring under £20bn of debt and is rushing to find a buyer willing to inject cash by the end of June.
Anglian Water has faced 22 investigations since last July. Sources in the environment department said they had directed the Environment Agency to take robust action and hoped to see water executives in court in coming months. After these investigations, water bosses could be jailed for two years and water companies fined hundreds of millions of pounds.
Steve Reed, the environment secretary, said: 'Not only did the Conservatives oversee record levels of sewage dumping, they also shamelessly tried to cover it up. This Labour government is cleaning up the foul mess the Tories left behind with a record number of criminal investigations into lawbreaking water companies – which could see bosses behind bars.'
It is a criminal offence for a water company to break the rules of its environmental permit, including releasing excessive pollution or failing to carry out water quality monitoring. The Environment Agency has hired 380 extra regulatory staff to carry out inspections and other enforcement activity.
