Southern Water customers' bills will be cut next year as the company faces a multi-million pound pollution penalty. Watchdog Ofwat said water companies will have to pay a £157.6 million penalty after missing key targets on reducing pollution, leaks and supply interruptions while customer satisfaction continues to fall.
In an annual performance report, the regulator said customer bills will be slashed in 2025-6 to reflect the penalties, with the total rebates calculated in December. Ofwat said Southern Water's share of the penalty is £31.9 million.
The company failed on its commitment to reduce pollution incidents by 30 per cent. Across the board, these were reduced by only two per cent. Not one company achieved the regulator’s top category of “leading” while Anglian Water, Welsh Water and Southern Water were among those in the lowest category of "lagging".
The remaining ten were rated average. Ofwat judges the performance of water companies in England and Wales each year against the targets they set in 2019 for a five-year period until 2025. If they fail to meet these, Ofwat restricts the amount of money they can take from customers.
David Black, chief executive of Ofwat, said: “This year’s performance report is stark evidence that money alone will not bring the sustained improvements that customers rightly expect. “It is clear that companies need to change and that has to start with addressing issues of culture and leadership. Too often we hear that weather, th.
