England’s nine water companies have collectively reached their lowest rating since the start of the Environment Agency’s (EA) assessment scheme in 2011.
The EA puts the majority of the result down to poor performance on pollution incidents at almost all companies – following 74 serious pollution incidents last year which weighed in on the result.
Only one company earned the top rating (Severn Trent Water), whilst the rest either received the lowest possible rating or the band which requires improvement.
For this year’s data, the EA will apply a new methodology for 2026-2030 with additional metrics and targets.
In these new metrics, dry day spills detected by storm overflow monitors will be recorded as pollution incidents and counted in the assessment.
With only 80% of Water Industry National Environment Programme schemes completed last year, at its lowest since 2011, it is unsurprising that the rest of the data follows suit as low quality.
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