Anglian Water shareholders to pay £62.8 million after failure to manage wastewater properly across region

Ofwat – the water services regulation authority – has announced an enforcement package following its finding that Anglian Water has breached its legal obligations in operating its wastewater treatment works and network.

The investigation found that Anglian Water has failed to operate, maintain and upgrade its wastewater assets adequately to ensure they could cope with the flows of sewage and wastewater coming to them. The authority said this resulted in “excessive spills” from storm overflows, which is “unacceptable”.

Anglian Water has accepted wrongdoings and has confirmed the £62.8 million redress package will be “entirely funded” by shareholders and not customers.

Lynn Parker, senior director for enforcement at Ofwat, said: “Our investigation has found failures in how Anglian Water has operated and maintained its sewage works and networks, which has resulted in excessive spills from storm overflows. This is a serious breach and is unacceptable.

“We understand that the public wants to see transformative change. That is why we are prioritising this sector-wide investigation which is holding wastewater companies to account for identified failures.”

Mark Thurston, CEO for Anglian Water, added: “We understand the need to rebuild trust with customers and that aspects of our performance need to improve to do that. Reducing pollutions and spills is our number one operational focus, and we have both the investment and the partners in place to deliver on those promises as part of our £11 billion business plan over the next five years.

"In the meantime, we have proposed this redress package, recognising the need to invest in the communities and environments most impacted.

“It will take time and investment to achieve a significant reduction in spills, but we are making good progress. By 2030 we have allocated a dedicated £1 billion for measures such as storm tanks, upgraded monitoring, nature-based solutions like wetlands, and sustainable drainage solutions to halve the number of spills.

“Equally, it will take time to upgrade the vast network of assets we manage… all of these need to be part of a significant capital programme to maintain and renew what is there. This is what will be set out in our plans - to ensure we can make the improvements that are best for the environment and delivers on our promises to customers.”

The £62.8 million package includes:

• £5.8 million to create a new community fund which will support local environmental and social causes
• £57 million to tackle more complex issues within at least eight high priority catchments, as well as addressing more specific place-based challenges. This will include installing sustainable drainage solutions (SuDS) and upgrading community-owned assets that contribute to flooding

• Accelerating delivery of investment which the company had already planned for 2025-30 through its Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan. This includes earlier delivery of 36 storm tanks, 45 screens and 42 other deliverables

• The company will develop and deliver a remediation and compliance plan to ensure that all its storm overflows are compliant with the legal requirements considered by our investigation.

The enforcement package will now be subject to consultation which will be open for the public and key stakeholders to offer any final comments before Ofwat’s final decision.