The Environment Agency says the pace of change at water firms in England continues to fall short of what is needed, with only three achieving the top ranking for performance.
A majority of England’s nine water and sewage companies are “failing to get the basics right”, according to annual rankings which labelled four operators as responsible for 90% of serious pollution incidents.
It said that fact “polarised performance” across the sector as firms UK-wide face pressure to cut raw sewage discharges through heightened, and long overdue, investment in their infrastructure.
Separate EA data covering 2023, released in March, showed spills into England’s rivers hit record levels last year.
Labour’s plans include tougher penalties for poor performance and the ability to block rewards for failure when annual bonuses and shareholder payouts are due.
The body’s chair Alan Lovell said: "For the nation to have cleaner rivers and seas, water companies must take responsibility to understand the root cause of their problems.
“As part of this we are taking forward our biggest ever transformation in the way we regulate, recruiting up to 500 additional staff, increasing compliance checks and quadrupling the number of water company inspections by March next year.”
The original article contains 615 words, the summary contains 168 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A majority of England’s nine water and sewage companies are “failing to get the basics right”, according to annual rankings which labelled four operators as responsible for 90% of serious pollution incidents.
It said that fact “polarised performance” across the sector as firms UK-wide face pressure to cut raw sewage discharges through heightened, and long overdue, investment in their infrastructure.
Separate EA data covering 2023, released in March, showed spills into England’s rivers hit record levels last year.
Labour’s plans include tougher penalties for poor performance and the ability to block rewards for failure when annual bonuses and shareholder payouts are due.
The body’s chair Alan Lovell said: "For the nation to have cleaner rivers and seas, water companies must take responsibility to understand the root cause of their problems.
“As part of this we are taking forward our biggest ever transformation in the way we regulate, recruiting up to 500 additional staff, increasing compliance checks and quadrupling the number of water company inspections by March next year.”
The original article contains 615 words, the summary contains 168 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!