Why broken water companies are failing England and Wales.
With rising bills, deteriorating river health and a lack of investment, regulators face an uphill battle to stabilise the industry.
Water bills have gone up – Ofwat estimates that they will be 67% higher in real terms in 2025-2030 than they were in 1989-1994 – but customers widely believe they are receiving a worse service. Some have suffered serious outages, most recently in Kent and Sussex, where about 30,000 households were left without water for up to six days in January. Many complain of low pressure and the regular imposition of hosepipe bans, when an estimated three billion litres of water are lost to leaks every day in England and Wales.
By far the biggest complaint, though, is about pollution: water companies discharged untreated waste into England’s rivers and seas 450,398 times in 2024. Some 14,500 sewage overflow pipes, which are meant only to operate in emergencies, discharged for a total of 3.6 million hours. Just 15% of rivers in England are deemed to be in good health.
