Anglian Water agrees to £62.8m redress package after Ofwat wastewater probe

Yahoo

6 days ago

Anglian Water has agreed to a pay £62.8m funded by shareholders after an Ofwat wastewater investigation.
The water watchdog has announced the redress package - now subject to consultation - which will fund environmental and community initiatives across the East of England.
The package was proposed by Anglian Water in response to Ofwat's industry-wide investigation into wastewater treatment works and networks.
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Last week, a report by Sir Jon Cunliffe set out how water companies should be regulated following public outrage at the state of the industry and multiple sewage spill issues.
The sum proposed by Anglian Water will be entirely funded by its shareholders rather than customers, it said.
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It includes a new £5.8m Community Fund to support local environmental and social courses. It will be ringfenced for causes in the Anglian region.
Local communities and organisations will be able to apply for grants with priority given to environmental causes and those near Anglian Water storm overflows and capital investment works.
The larger sum - £57m - will be used to tackle more complex issues in eight-plus "high priority" catchments with specific challenges.
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This will include installing sustainable drainage solutions (SuDS) to combat drainage and flooding issues, upgrading community-owned assets that contribute to flooding, and other local initiatives.
The company also said it would accelerate planned investment to reduce spills at high-risk sites with new storage, removing surface water and misconnections and optimising the existing network.
A longer term action plan will also be implemented to ensure spills from storm overflows are minimised and assets are compliant with legal requirements.
The work will be in addition to its £11bn business plan for the next five years, in which £1bn will be targeted at driving storm overflows to low levels, and £1.7bn to improve maintenance and performance of water recycling systems.
"The scale of the redress package is chiefly reflective of Anglian Water's turnover rather than an indicator of severity of issues and seeks to achieve a better outcome for customers and the environment," the company said.
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Anglian Water chief executive Mark Thurston 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 £11bn 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."
But he added that it would "take time" to upgrade the vast network of assets it manages.
"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.'
The enforcement package is subject to consultation which will be open for the public and key stakeholders to offer any final comments before Ofwat's final decision.