Ofwat set specific performance commitments for water companies including on leakage. South West Water continues to underperform on leakage, and the company did not meet its 2024 target. Government expects Ofwat to enable fair prices for customers through the setting of licence conditions and guaranteed service standards. To further support this, Government is enabling the largest smart meter rollout to date over this price review to protect customer bills by, identifying and eradicating leakage.

Successful projects for the Water Restoration Fund (WRF) were announced in October 2025. These projects are now in delivery and there are no plans for further application rounds.

On 20 January 2026, government announced alongside the White Paper that £29 million in water company fines will support further local water improvement projects through catchment partnerships, the Water Environment Improvement Fund (WEIF) and Water and Abandoned Metal Mines (WAMM) Programme.

These funds were based on environmental fines and penalties collected from water and sewerage companies.

Government will confirm how any future income from environmental fines and penalties will be spent in due course, after the balance has been paid.

Decisions on sewer provision sit with South West Water, but if the community believes a mains connection is needed, a Section 101A application can be submitted for assessment. The EA can support residents with guidance on compliance with the General Binding Rules, their Environmental Permit and Section 101A application.

Customers affected by Storm Goretti will receive payments under the Guaranteed Standards Scheme (GSS). These payments come from a company's current operating expenditure and are not paid for through a future increase in customer bills.

The standards, outlined in the GSS, set out a baseline for customer service in the water sector. They include providing timely restoration of water supply following an interruption, responding to written complaints and managing the risk of sewer flooding.

Ofwat has previously published summaries of the GSS framework on its website (see here and here). Companies report on GSS payments in their Annual Performance Reports and submit these figures to Ofwat. These reports are independently audited, and Ofwat uses them to inform its work.

The Security and Emergency Measures Direction 2022 (SEMD) requires water companies to ensure continuation of their water distribution functions during an emergency. SEMD includes a legal requirement for companies to have “appropriate emergency communication facilities and procedures for managing and maintaining communications and support to customers throughout an emergency”.

Defra expects water companies to respond rapidly and on a 24/7 basis through a range of communication methods (including, but not limited to, telephone, email, and social media). We also expect companies to plan for individual channels being unavailable, for example during power or telecoms failures, and that companies should adapt their communications plans in response to customer feedback or local priorities as incidents evolve.

Defra Ministers met with senior officials from South West Water over the past weekend to discuss the company’s response to the supply disruption following Storm Goretti. The Drinking Water Inspectorate, on behalf of the Secretary of State, regulates water company performance on SEMD. Their review of the company’s response to Storm Goretti will include examination of South West Water’s compliance with the communication requirements of SEMD.

The hon. Gentleman is right to remind us of what was a terrible scandal, and I will ask the Water Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice (Emma Hardy), to meet him and his constituents to discuss it. He and the public are right to be furious that companies are still polluting our seas, lakes and rivers. We have taken action by banning bonuses for bosses in six polluting companies, changing the law so that those who hide sewage spills can be locked up, and issuing almost £30 million in fines to clean up waterways. We are clearing up the mess that the party over there left, like everything else.

Q2

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Ben Maguire (North Cornwall) (LD):

I thank the Prime Minister for having confirmed a Cornwall-only devolution deal since my last question to him.

In 1988 more than 20,000 North Cornwall constituents were poisoned by the then South West Water Authority, and in a recent BBC documentary strong suggestions were made of a cover-up by the Thatcher Government. None of those victims have ever been properly compensated, and today South West Water poisons my constituents with impunity through its constant sewage dumping. Christmas swims across Cornwall have been cancelled again, while constituents such as William Howells in Padstow have been hospitalised. Will the Prime Minister please meet me to finally deliver justice to all water poisoning victims, and ensure that this never happens again?

It is important that the public have access to reliable information on storm overflow discharges. The Water (Special Measures) Act introduced a duty for water companies to publish data related to discharges from all emergency overflows within one hour of the discharge beginning. This matches the pre-existing duty for storm overflows, which was introduced on 01 January.

To support this, Water UK have launched a central hub that provides discharge data of every storm overflow in England on a single website.

As part of Price Review 2024 (PR24), which runs from 2025–2030, water companies will be delivering record levels of investment. This includes South West Water delivering £764 million of investment to reduce storm overflow spills and £55 million to install real-time monitors at high-priority sites.

Ofwat will hold water companies to account for the decisions set at the Price Review. Ofwat's claw back mechanism ensures that funding for schemes not delivered is returned to customers, by reducing bills.

It is important that the public have access to reliable information on storm overflow discharges. The Water (Special Measures) Act introduced a duty for water companies to publish data related to discharges from all emergency overflows within one hour of the discharge beginning. This matches the pre-existing duty for storm overflows, which was introduced on 01 January.

To support this, Water UK have launched a central hub that provides discharge data of every storm overflow in England on a single website.

As part of Price Review 2024 (PR24), which runs from 2025–2030, water companies will be delivering record levels of investment. This includes South West Water delivering £764 million of investment to reduce storm overflow spills and £55 million to install real-time monitors at high-priority sites.

Ofwat will hold water companies to account for the decisions set at the Price Review. Ofwat's claw back mechanism ensures that funding for schemes not delivered is returned to customers, by reducing bills.

It is important that the public have access to reliable information on storm overflow discharges. The Water (Special Measures) Act introduced a duty for water companies to publish data related to discharges from all emergency overflows within one hour of the discharge beginning. This matches the pre-existing duty for storm overflows, which was introduced on 01 January.

To support this, Water UK have launched a central hub that provides discharge data of every storm overflow in England on a single website.

As part of Price Review 2024 (PR24), which runs from 2025–2030, water companies will be delivering record levels of investment. This includes South West Water delivering £764 million of investment to reduce storm overflow spills and £55 million to install real-time monitors at high-priority sites.

Ofwat will hold water companies to account for the decisions set at the Price Review. Ofwat's claw back mechanism ensures that funding for schemes not delivered is returned to customers, by reducing bills.

Since 2015 Ofwat has set total expenditure allowances which allow for companies to meet their obligations under the environment and water quality programmes. Based on data provided by Ofwat, the figures for South West Water are set out below.

Between 2015 and 2024 the environment programme allowance for South West Water was £249.2 million and the water quality allowance was £153.2 million.

Due to figures being unable to be split between two price control periods, figures for 2013-15 cannot be provided.

The Government has no intention to nationalise water companies, including South West Water. Such a process would significantly stall much needed investment, leaving sewage pollution only to get worse.

Nationalising the water industry would put a huge burden on the public purse and would not fix the root of the problem. Shareholders and debt holders would need to be compensated, which could cost over an estimated £90 billion based on Ofwat’s Regulatory Capital Value (RCV) 2024 figures for companies in England and Wales.

This Government has already shown we will take the necessary action with the introduction of our landmark piece of legislation, the Water (Special Measures) Act, and the Independent Water Commission which will make recommendations to ensure we have a sufficiently robust and stable regulatory framework to attract the investment needed to clean up our waterways, speed up infrastructure delivery and restore public confidence in the sector.

The taxpayer-funded contribution to the water and sewerage bills of South West Water (SWW) household customers ended on 31 March 2025. The rebate was originally introduced in 2013 because SWW customers faced significantly higher water bills than customers in other regions due to the level of investment the company was required to make in the region’s infrastructure to meet environmental and water quality standards.

Over the last decade the difference between water bills in the South West region and others has decreased. Over the next Price Review period (2025-2029) Ofwat’s latest projections are that SWW customers will have similar bills to those in other regions.

The Government is committed to taking action to address water poverty and help vulnerable customers with their water bills. All water companies have measures in place for people who struggle to pay for their water and wastewater services, including measures such as WaterSure, social tariffs, payment breaks and holidays, and debt management support.

We expect all water companies to proactively engage with their customers to ensure they know what support schemes are available and how to use them.

Access to testing and monitoring data is vital for transparency and to hold water companies to account to deliver protections for our rivers, lakes and seas. There are a number of provisions to ensure that Government, regulators and the public have access to the information about discharges from water company assets.

The Environment Agency undertakes statutory bathing water samples to test for microbiological water quality including faecal indicator organisms at Teignmouth Town, Shaldon and Ness Cove, and six additional freshwater sites along the River Teign, during the bathing water season. High readings will be investigated.

This data is published on the EA’s Swimfo bathing waters website so that the public can make an informed decision before swimming.

Since 1 January 2025, water companies are required to publish data related to discharges from all storm overflows within one hour of the discharge beginning. This data can be found on the South West Water website.