Serious pollution incidents linked to water companies rises 60 per cent
Three water companies – Thames Water, Southern Water and Yorkshire Water – were responsible for the bulk of the incidents, according to the Environment Agency (EA).
It comes after the same firms were criticised this week for announcing controversial hosepipe bans while also overseeing major leaks and paying senior executives six-figure salaries.
The EA's annual environmental performance assessment (EPA) found the three companies were responsible for more than 80 per cent of the 75 instances last year. Thames Water accounted for 33 incidents, Southern Water 15 and Yorkshire Water 13, the report said.
Overall, the number of serious pollution incidents increased from 47 in 2023. Several of the incidents are said to have affected swimming spots and protected waters.
Serious incidents are defined as having a major or significant impact on the environment.
Total pollution incidents, including those with a lower environmental impact, also increased by 29 per cent to 2,801 last year.
The EA said there had been ' consistently poor performance ' across all nine of the water and wastewater firms in England.
According to the report, reasons behind the latest results include persistent underinvestment in new infrastructure, poor asset maintenance, and reduced resilience due to the impacts of climate change.
Alan Lovell, chair of the EA, said: 'This report demonstrates continued systemic failure by some companies to meet their environmental targets. The water industry must act urgently to prevent pollution from occurring and to respond rapidly when it does.'
A hosepipe ban is already in force for Yorkshire Water's five million customers and 1.1 million of Thames Water's customers while Southern Water's will start for 935,000 customers in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight on Monday.
South East Water has also introduced a ban for 1.4 million people in Kent and Sussex from this morning.
Last month, a review by the Independent Water Commission identified 'deep-rooted, systemic' failures in the water sector. It said the ailing sector needed a fundamental reform of laws, regulation and infrastructure.
Britain's biggest water company Thames Water is again facing the spectre of temporary nationalisation after private equity firm KKR pulled out of plans for a £3 billion bailout.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Auto Express
12 minutes ago
- Auto Express
How green is an EV? BMW reveals the surprise truth about EV vs ICE carbon footprints
Think the fuss over carbon footprints is a load of hot air? Tell that to BMW, which claims to have slashed the environmental impact of producing its all-new iX3 electric SUV by more than one-third. Despite manufacturing electric cars being more energy intensive than making ICE cars, BMW calculates the iX3 will break even with its X3 petrol equivalent after just 12,428 miles (20,000km) of driving. That means the average UK driver covering 7,000 miles a year will have paid off an iX3's embedded carbon debt in less than two years. And they'll have enjoyed every mile, if their experience lives up to our prototype drive. Advertisement - Article continues below The roll-out of BMW's 'Neue Klasse' vehicles, starting with the iX3 that arrives in the UK in March 2026, will trigger the reduced environmental impact. It's the result of a forensic approach of using renewable energy in its Hungarian car plant and supplier base, and by incorporating more recycled materials in the car, particularly aluminium, steel and thermoplastic. Producing batteries has a significant carbon cost. But it's a myth that EV batteries aren't recyclable: half of the lithium, cobalt and nickel in the iX3's battery is being used for a second time. Reducing the amount of raw materials needing to be mined, and powering anode and cathode production with green energy, drives down the battery's CO2 footprint by 42 per cent. All these figures, published for the first time today, have been independently verified – and Polestar is coming clean about how green its cars are too. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below Fancy a used BMW iX3 ? Check out the Auto Express marketplace for great deals on new and used cars With the Neue Klasse cars, BMW has designed-in carbon-reducing processes on an unprecedented scale. 'In every component, we have to ask: can we get secondary raw materials in there? Can we use renewable energies? It's a total vehicle redesign,' explains Nils Hesse, BMW's vice president for product sustainability. Without this focus, the iX3 50 xDrive's manufacturing footprint would be 21 tonnes-of-CO2-equivalent (tCO2e) per vehicle. Instead it's been slashed to 13.5 tCO2e per vehicle – compared with 9.9 tonnes for a petrol X3 20i xDrive coming out of the factory gate. Advertisement - Article continues below But the iX3's 3.6-tonne greater CO2e debt compared with the petrol-powered X3 is paid off after 20,000km, assuming it's recharged using the typical European Union mix of renewable and carbon energy. Without the Neue Klasse carbon reduction measures, the breakeven point would be at 60,000km (37,284 miles). Run the iX3 and X3 for 200,000km (124,280 miles), and the petrol SUV will rack up a 52.8-tonne carbon footprint, compared with 14.6 tonnes for the EV recharged strictly on green energy, or 23 tonnes on the EU energy mix. That's potentially a 38-tonne advantage – for an iX3 powered by the long range, 108kWh battery. The tipping point for smaller battery cars will be lower. By weight, around one-third of the new iX3 comes from secondary materials, equivalent to around 740 kilograms. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below The wheel carriers and rims are up to four-fifths secondary aluminium, while recycling old fishing nets and ropes contribute 30 per cent of the plastics for the 'frunk', the 58-litre storage area in the iX3's nose. It's not just about making sure the right materials go in, but also making them easier to take out at the end of the iX3's life, to maximise 'circularity'. So the Econeer seat's fleece, glue and the seat textile are all made from the same material, meaning it can all be shredded together when the car is dismantled and sent away for re-use. BMW has also developed a new seat-mounting method and uses fewer components throughout to reduce disassembly time – an important factor to make the secondary-use supply chain economically viable. Advertisement - Article continues below 'The future goal is to establish a material cycle with the car as a resource, so that we can close the loop at the end,' says Nils Hesse. Many companies are now understating their sustainability initiatives, with right-wing political sentiment swinging against environmental action in Europe and the USA. BMW, however, will not be cowed. 'Sustainability is not only important, it's fundamental,' vows Glenn Schmidt, BMW's vice president of global sustainability. 'Sustainability isn't just something we say, we are making BMW sustainable. 'We are committed to being net zero by 2050 and we made the commitment in 2020 that we would conform to the Paris accords.' Schmidt says sustainability is 'something that needs to be embedded into all our activities, into our supply chain and also into our product development'. And crucial to that is measurement. In 2019, BMW calculated its activities generated 150m tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Last year it shrank this to 131 million tCO2e. BMW reckons it's on track to emit 109 million tCO2e in 2030, and the holy grail – its 'net zero' target – is 15 million tonnes per year in 2050. Click here for our list of the electric cars with the longest range ... Find a car with the experts Electric cars driven until they die: the truth about EV range Electric cars driven until they die: the truth about EV range Five EVs under £24k have joined Dacia's Spring on the UK market. How far can you go on a budget? We find out Volkswagen, Skoda and Cupra slash electric car prices Volkswagen, Skoda and Cupra slash electric car prices Volkswagen, Skoda and Cupra aren't waiting around for the government grant by cutting £1,500 from their EV prices New MINI Cooper and MINI Aceman get the monochrome treatment New MINI Cooper and MINI Aceman get the monochrome treatment It's as simple as black and white for new MINI Cooper and MINI Aceman Monochrome
The Sun
13 minutes ago
- The Sun
Aldi shoppers go wild as garden furniture scanning for £20 instead of £80 – and it's perfect for parties
ALDI shoppers rushed to share the good news that some of its most popular garden furniture has been slashed by £60. One excited shopper showed how they managed to nab the coveted Rattan Effect Garden Bar for only £19.99, a massive discount from the original price of £79.99. 5 5 The garden bar is described by Aldi as stylish and functional and is designed with hosting in mind. It features an integrated stainless-steel ice bucket, built-in bottle storage, and two wine glass racks to maximise space. The lucky person took to the Aldi UK Shoppers Facebook page where they showed their receipt and also how they'd managed to set up the stylish bar in their garden. "Today's Bargain £79.99 to £19.99 new addition to my bar," the person captioned the post. Lucky for some Other people rushed to the comments, with some admitting they'd missed out on the great price. "We bought this yesterday but it was £39.99," revealed one disappointed shopper. Another added: "Seems to vary store to store.... still 39 in ours too, a lot of other sale items marked down next store closest still full price." But not everyone was as unlucky: "Saw you got it yesterday. So rushed to get one this morning," that person also shared a photo of their newly assembled bar. The garden bar is a part of Aldi's popular rattan garden furniture range and was introduced into stores on April 27 of this year. Be Bargain Savvy It is important to remember to always shop around when buying any item, even if it is at a budget supermarket such as Aldi, as you might find a cheaper alternative. Websites like Trolley and Price Spy let you compare thousands of products across different retailers to find the best price. Price Spy even lets you see how much an item has cost over time, so you can see whether the current price is a good deal. A quick scan on the Google Shopping/Product tab will also bring up how much retailers are selling a certain item for too. 5 5
Daily Mail
13 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
SMALL CAP MOVERS: Rockhopper seeks $140m for Falkland's offshore oil
Great Scott! Is it 2012 again, or did I just hit 88 miles per hour in a DeLorean? This week's news jolted Team Proactive straight back to the past. Rockhopper Exploration, that blast-from-the-past Falklands oil explorer, is launching an equity placing to fund the Sea Lion project. For a split second, we half expected Marty McFly to appear, skateboard in hand, quoting oil reserves. A lot has changed since Sea Lion was the talk of AIM, long before Trump, tariffs, Covid, AI, or even the phrase 'net zero' entered the mainstream. Back then, big-money offshore oil plays still had their admirers. Now? Let's just say the market's patience is thinner. Yet here we are: Rockhopper is seeking to raise $140 million to finally take its 500-million-barrel Falklands discovery into production. It's a test for AIM's appetite for risk, and for the small-cap market's ability to believe in a comeback story. All proceeds will sit in escrow, pending a final investment decision, so we'll soon find out if this is Back to the Future or, to quote the great Yogi Berra, just déjà vu all over again. As the FTSE 100 waded into record territory, the appetite for small-caps seemed to wane, with the AIM All-Share receding 2.5 per cent, wiping out any progress made in July. Now, we haven't done the maths on this one so it's just a hunch at this stage, but the welter of fundraising ahead of the summer break could be the reason. With growth companies issuing new shares in almost unprecedented numbers, this tends to be a short-term depressant on value; certainly, it doesn't support a 'risk-off' narrative that would normally underpin such a sharp decline. Back to this week's movers and groovers. It was a great week if you bought shares in Tasty on Monday, just before the fun started. For the uninitiated, Tasty owns the dim t and Wildwood restaurant brands. No, me neither. Still, my ignorance isn't shared by David Page, the restaurant entrepreneur behind Pizza Express and Fulham Shore's success. It emerged on Tuesday that Tasty is in advanced discussions to bring on board Page and former Fulham Shore finance director Nicholas Wong. It is also looking at funding plans. Cue a 50 per cent rise in the share price. The week's big break-out riser, up 84 per cent, was Empresaria Group, which said it had received a 62p-a-share indicative offer, valuing its staffing business at just over £33 million. Even after the strong rise, the stock is trading 20p shy of the indicative offer. Arkle Resources ended the week 22 per cent higher after securing £500,000 of new investment by issuing shares at a significant premium to the market price. Well done to boss John Teeling and the team for pulling that one off. Now on to the week's list of casualties. Investors in Versarien, the graphene specialist, had a week to forget, with the stock falling 48 per cent. The catalyst was the company's failure to find a buyer for one of its businesses, which will now be placed into administration. Versarien is now in cash conservation mode as it looks for 'material' outside investment. That said, its funding runway is short, hence the worrying lurch groundward in the stock price. The share price chart of Metals One in the year to date resembles the outline of the Alps, with huge, steep rock faces and precipitous, craggy drops on the other side. This week, the crampons were discarded for abseiling ropes as the stock dropped almost 40 per cent. The reason was simple: the issue of new stock and the exercise of warrants. Long-term, the picture looks fairly positive, as the group has now increased its holding in a US uranium asset to 30 per cent. Showing there is little margin for error, Cambridge Cognition lost almost a quarter of its market value after what analysts described as only a 'slightly light' performance. The company, which focuses on tests and technologies for brain health, reported new sales orders of £6.9 million for the six months to 30 June. The order book rose to £16.4 million, up from £13.6 million at the end of 2024.
