In December, sector regulator Ofwat said it would allow water firms to raise bills by an average of £157, or 36%, over the next five years to help finance investment into crumbling infrastructure. However, now six water firms – Thames Water, Southern Water, Anglian Water, South East Water, Northumbrian Water and Wessex Water – have launched an appeal to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to try and raise bills even higher.
To justify this decision, David Henderson, chief executive of Water UK, said: “Water companies need to invest billions to strengthen and expand infrastructure to support economic growth, secure our water supplies and end sewage entering our rivers and seas”. Water UK also said that water companies will triple customer support.
This came just hours after the High Court ruled that Thames Water could press on with a £3 billion cash injection to prevent imminent collapse, in a high-cost loan deal described by Mr Justice Leech as “eye-watering” and strongly opposed by campaigners. Southernwater was also already being granted permission to raise bills by 53% over the next five years, more than any other in the UK.
Photo credit: Tom Fisk
The country’s water sector has been criticised for polluting rivers and for prioritising profits and dividends over the environment and maintenance of infrastructure. In December, an investigation by the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) found that Ofwat, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Environment Agency (EA) had all failed to stop water companies from discharging sewage into England’s waterways when it was not raining heavily. In fact, The i Paper revealed that hundreds of sewage spills were downgraded in seriousness last year by the EA without explanation.
A total of 1,849 sewage pollution incidents that were initially categorised as having a “significant environmental impact” were later downgraded to having “no impact”, according to data obtained by freedom of information laws. On Saturday, 22 February, nearly 470 sewage discharges were reported across England over 24 hours, and since 1 January 2025, water companies have discharged sewage over 72,000 times across the UK.
The appeals have sparked widespread outrage. Drawing strong criticism from several MPs, Liberal Democrat Environment Spokesperson Tim Farron MP said:“It is scandalous that debt riddled water companies demand higher bills from customers, whilst they continue to pump gallons of disgusting sewage into British seas and rivers… the Government must knuckle down and replace Ofwat with a new regulator”. Ash Smith, founder of the Windrush Against Sewage Pollution campaign group, echoed these sentiments: “Water companies have become reliant on being able to pollute illegally and get away with it.” According to Matthew Topham, Lead Campaigner at We Own It, which campaigns to bring water companies under public ownership, “over £72bn has been lost to shareholder dividends in the 35 years since privatisation… 82 per cent of the British public want our water in public ownership. I think it’s time the Government started listening to the public on this.”