Anglian Water to pay out £62.8m after wastewater failures

The water regulator has told Anglian Water to pay out a £62.8 million enforcement package due to failures managing its wastewater treatment works and network.

Ofwat said it is proposing that the package must be paid by the company and its shareholders “for the benefit of the environment and their customers”.

It said failures by the company led to “excessive spills from storm overflows”.

The industry regulator said its investigation found that the water firm failed to run, maintain and upgrade its wastewater operations adequately to ensure they could cope with the flows of sewage and wastewater coming to them.

It added that the firm failed to have adequate processes and oversight from senior management and its board to ensure its operations were performing properly and would meet 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.”

The regulator said Anglian will create a £5.8 million community fund to support projects delivering environmental and social benefits for local communities, focusing on the water environment.

Anglian will also invest £57 million into developing excess flow management plans to adequately deal with wastewater flows in at least eight catchments in its region to provide local environmental improvements.

The utilities firm, which provides services to seven million people in the east of England, said it would also accelerate a number of investments to drive the early delivery of more storm tanks and screens.

Earlier this year, Anglian said it was putting up bills by 19%, to an average of £626 a year, for the 2025/26 financial year from April.

In May, the water supplier was fined a record £1.42 million for drinking water failures that affected around 1.3 million people.

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.”

Published: 29/07/2025 by Radio NewsHub