‘Clueless’ water companies refunding £114m to customers over sewage spills slammed as ‘just a sweetener’

Water companies paying out £114 million to customers has been slammed as “just a sweetener” as sewage is “still destroying our rivers.”

Mark Barrow, an underwater filmmaker from Beneath British Waters, who has been documenting the amount of raw sewage in UK rivers, told NationalWorld that today’s announcement (Tuesday 26 September) seems as though water companies are “getting off with a get out of jail card”.

He added: “It amazes me that the ordinary working person knows what needs to be done, yet those responsible and in charge seem clueless.”

Today Ofwat announced that all water companies will pay out £114 million in total to bill-payers after its “damning report” revealed not one company achieved its top category of “leading”.

Dwr Cymru, Southern, Thames, Anglian, Bristol, South East and Yorkshire Water all fell into the lowest category of “lagging” and the remaining 10 water companies were rated “average”.

Ofwat judges the performance of water companies in England and Wales each year against the “stretching” targets they set in 2019 for a five-year period until 2025.

If they fail to meet these, Ofwat restricts the amount of money they can take from customers.

Mr Barrow said that according to Feargal Sharkey, customers will be refunding a total of “£2.28” from the £114 million pay out.

He said: “Personally am not that hard up for £2.28, it won’t alter my life but why can’t that money instead of going back to customers be used with various river restoration projects.

“The refund is just a sweetener, and despite the fact that sewage is destroying our rivers.”

Thames Water is the company which must return the most, more than £101 million, followed by Southern Water which must pay out £43 million.

Laura Reineke, from campaign group Henley Mermaids, told NationalWorld that all this money Thames Water is paying out “should have gone into infrastructure improvements”.

She added: “There is no trust between us, the public, the regulators and the water companies, that needs to change. Until it does, we can’t believe any money will be returned, or any parties will do the right thing.”

Josh Harris, Head of Communications at environment group Surfers Against Sewage, said that the report shows how “the stink is plain for all to smell and see” and “sadly it’s the same old sickening story”.

A Water UK spokesperson said that water companies in England and Wales ”recognise there is still much more to do to meet the regulator’s ever-tightening targets” and it is why they are “proposing record levels of investment over the rest of this decade, with detailed plans set to be published next week.”