Peterborough MP supports regulator's move that could see Anglian Water pay £62.8m for wastewater failures

Regulator Ofwat has outlined various actions Anglian Water must make to its wastewater treatment works and network after finding there had been ‘excessive spills from storm overflows’.

It has proposed that Anglian Water should pay out £62.8 million for the benefit of the environment and their customers.

The move comes after an Ofwat investigation found Anglian Water had 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.

Peterborough MP Andrew Pakes said: “I really welcome this news.

"Finally, there is a focus on holding Anglian Water to account and fixing our broken water system in the region.

"As an MP, I sit on the Environment Select Committee and for months we have hauled water company bosses, including Anglian Water, before our committee to answer for their actions.

People are simply fed up – fed up with pollution in their rivers while their bills go up.

"This enforcement package begins to address the issue, but it isn’t over yet, and I will be keeping a close watch on it.”

The £62.8 million redress package proposed by Anglian Water includes:

• Creating a £5.8 million community fund to support projects delivering environmental and social benefits for local communities, with a particular focus on restitution of the water environment.
• Investing £57 million to develop and deliver Excess Flow Management Plans in eight areas in the region.
• Accelerate delivery of investment planned for 2025-30 through its Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan.
• Develop and deliver a remediation and compliance plan to ensure all its storm overflows are compliant with the legal requirements.

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.

"We are pleased Anglian Water has accepted that it got things wrong and is now focusing on putting that right and taking action to come back into compliance.

"We expect all companies to do the same so that customers can regain confidence in their water company and the critical service they provide.”

Mark Thurston, chief executive of Anglian Water, said: “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 £1bn 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; we have hundreds of treatment works, more than 100,000 kilometres of pipes and sewers underground, many hundreds of water storage points and storm tanks – 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.”