Several issues can determine whether a company with a commercial water provider sticks with it or switches supplier. Price is part of the picture, while the reliability of supply is another. However, environmental performance is a further consideration.
Unlike the first two, it may not have an immediate and obvious direct effect on your business. However, it still matters for various reasons. That could include your corporate social responsibility, but also the fact that you don’t want your business and all who work in it and live locally to have to endure an unpleasant environment.
Amid widespread concerns that the law has just not been strict enough on polluting firms, many will consider switching to be one useful means of forcing firms to get their act in order. That may be even truer after new data revealed just how bad the situation is in some parts of the country.
Report Highlights Sewage Scandals
The latest information comes from pressure group Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), which has just produced its Water Quality Report 2025. Unfortunately, there is a distinct lack of quality to report.
Describing sewage dumping into rivers as “beyond belief”, the report revealed there were no fewer than 592,478 spills in 2024. English companies were guilty of twice as many instances as the maximum permitted by the Environment Agency.
Scotland also had plenty of offenders, although SAS noted that a lot of data is missing, making it hard to build a complete picture. Only 6.7 per cent of the network could be tracked by available data, but from that, there were 23,498 sewage dumps identified, which, if extrapolated across the whole Scottish network, would amount to 364,629 in 2024.
Moreover, it reported, there was a failure by Scottish Water to report 73 per cent of spills in real time.
The report also covered widespread failings in Wales and Northern Ireland, painting a bleak and rather smelly picture across the UK.
When Waterways Become A Health Hazard
For SAS, this is of particular concern because of the health dangers to water users such as surfers and anyone swimming in the sea or rivers. This led to around five people a day needing medical attention due to sickness caused by entering polluted water.
This may be of greatest concern to any firms that are water users, not just in securing supplies for their operations, but also as users of waterways. The tourism sector will have particular reasons for concern, while pollution may also impact the seafood industry, which may include plants that use plenty of water to clean up.
SAS has also been tracking sewage spills across the UK since February, with spills showing up all over the country, from north to south, in urban areas and rural districts, inland and on the coast.
Environment Agency Acknowledges Problem
Last month, the Environment Agency acknowledged that the level of spillages across England remained “unacceptably high”, even though the number of spills per overflow was down from 33.1 in 2023 to 31.8 in 2024. There were also small improvements in the number of storm overflows that saw fewer than ten spills, or did not have any at all.
Such incremental improvements are far from enough in the context of the findings SAS has revealed. Indeed, Environment Agency Chair Alan Lovell acknowledged the problem is far from resolved, commenting: “This year’s data shows we are still a long way off where we need to be to stop unnecessary sewage pollution.”
The agency plans to use improved monitoring and tougher regulation to improve matters, with Mr Lovell reminding companies “to do what customers pay it to do: ensure their existing assets are maintained and operating properly”. This includes spending £10.2 billion on storm overflow improvements.
Time To Vote With Your Feet?
This, of course, is the heart of the matter. If your firm is the customer of a water company that is failing by causing pollution incidents in Britain’s rivers, lakes and seas, there comes a point where questions may be asked over whether it is better to offer the money to someone else who will use it better.
SAS put this point in stark terms, its Water Quality report lamenting the £1.2 billion paid to shareholders last year while 4.7 million hours of sewage spillages took place (this measurement states how long in total such drains were in use).
Given such figures, many will be sceptical that the administrative and legal oversight is having – or will have – enough impact. As domestic customers do not get a choice of supplier, it may be that businesses willing to vote with their feet and find a different supplier will have a crucial role to play in ending the scandal of water pollution across the country.
