Water companies: Firms 'laughing' as profits almost double since 2019 while rivers 'destroyed' by sewage pollution

Water companies in England and Wales have almost doubled their profits since 2019 despite continuing sewage dumping into rivers and seas. According to a Liberal Democrat analysis of Companies House data, during this parliament, which started in 2019, pre-tax profits at water companies have climbed by 82%.

It found that in 2022-23, England’s water firms made £1.7bn in pre-tax profits - up 82% since 2018-19. Since 2018-19, water firms have made £4.2bn in pre-tax profits.

It comes as a boycott is growing in the UK as more people refuse to pay the sewage element of their water bills over “appalling pollution”. One woman, Caz Dennett, from Weymouth in Dorset is refusing to pay sewerage charges from Wessex Water because of its “poor performance”.

The 52-year-old previously told NationalWorld that she lives in a seaside town but “found out that Wessex Water were discharging huge volumes of sewage into the seas, right where holidaymakers and locals enjoy the beach, and where precious sea-life can be found.” She explained that in April last year she had “just had enough” and decided not to pay the sewerage part of her water bill as companies "will start listening when we turn off the money tap”.

The Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, said: “These eye-watering profits are a national scandal. Whilst our rivers, lakes and coastlines get destroyed by raw sewage, these polluting firms are laughing all the way to the bank. Frankly, the whole thing stinks.”

The party will announce a range of measures to stop water companies from prioritising profit over the environment. It will call for an additional 16% levy on top of corporate tax for water firms, and ask for this to pay for river clean-ups and also the salaries of environmental journalists in each region. 

Mr Davey added: “This is concrete proof that under the Conservatives, water firms have prospered and got away with environmental vandalism. Britain needs a new wave of local journalists to hold polluting companies to account.”

In an exclusive interview with NationalWorld, fierce sewage campaigner Feargal Sharkey slammed water companies, saying customers have been paying for a service they have not been getting. He said water companies have “from day one a statutory obligation to build and operate and maintain a sewage system and I'm quoting, capable of essentially dealing with the contents of those sewers. That's the game they're in. That's the business they're in. They've not delivered that.”

He added: He said: “I cannot think of a single person in this country that is prepared to sit back and allow our environment and our rivers and our beaches to be destroyed by sewage pollution simply to feather the bank, the consent of shareholders and the fat cat greedy executives that are running the water industry. I would demand that the country goes out there and expresses that frustration and anger in the way that we've all been cheated and we have been cheated.”

On the analysis by the Liberal Democrats, a spokesperson for the industry body Water UK told The Guardian: “This analysis is wrong and also misses out five water companies. According to the regulator’s own analysis, water company investors have earned an average return of 2.8% since 2020. 

“This is half the average returns of other utilities and lower than the rates currently offered by most high street banks for a savings account. Water companies are focused on delivering what is set to be the largest investment programme in the sector’s history and the industry calls on regulators and government to back these plans.”