PRESS RELEASE : Over £180m of investment fast-tracked to prevent sewage spills [March 2024]
The press release issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 11 March 2024.
Fast-tracked investment of £180m over the next 12 months is expected to prevent more than 8,000 sewage spills polluting English waterways, the Environment Secretary announced today (Monday 11 March).
It follows the Secretary of State directing water and sewage companies last December to measurably reduce sewage spills over the next year by accelerating commitments and delivering new funding.
Examples of measures include investment in AI systems to help manage storm loads, the installation of thousands of new in-sewer monitors to check flows and spot blockages early, the recruitment and training of specialist staff, and accelerated wetland construction programmes.
These new funding commitments are in addition to water companies’ existing £3.1 billion investment into storm overflow improvements for this price review period (2020-2025), as well as their ongoing annual investment to maintain the performance of the existing network.
The accelerated improvements, which will be delivered by April 2025, support the targets under the government’s Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan. This is driving the largest infrastructure investment in water company history, estimated at £60 billion over the next 25 years.
It also follows the recent ban on bonuses for water company executives where firms have committed serious criminal breaches, subject to Ofwat consultation, and the quadrupling of the Environment Agency’s regulatory capacity, enabling them to carry out 4,000 water company inspections by the end of the next financial year.
Environment Secretary Steve Barclay said:
The amount of sewage being spilled into our rivers is completely unacceptable and the public rightly expects action. This £180 million of accelerated investment, which will stop more than 8,000 sewage spills over the next year, is a welcome step forward as we continue to push for better performance from water companies and hold them to account.
This money will mean more cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence, and more specialist staff to detect and reduce spills.
Today’s announcement builds on significant work by this government to protect and strengthen our waters with increased investment, stronger regulation and tougher enforcement action.
Further information
| Company | New funding (£m) | Expected outcomes |
|---|---|---|
| Anglian | £50m | The new funding will support Anglian’s commitment to having less than 20 spills per overflow by 2025, in line with their Get River Positive commitments and Ofwat Performance Commitments. It will deliver: 8000 additional sewer monitors to check flows and spot blockages early (building on the 22,000 new monitors already being installed); additional planned preventative maintenance in 100 catchments using insights from the new sewer monitors; additional teams across the East of England focussed on early response to spills to further reduce their duration and frequency; and the completion of a second ecological digital twin for the River Wensum in Norfolk to take a catchment-based partnership approach to spill reduction. |
| Severn Trent | £41m | The new funding commitment will deliver an estimated 2500 fewer spills and will enable the following: recruitment of staff and improving equipment in waste network teams; installing EDM dual monitors to provide a back-up data source; doubling the number of Network Technicians; investing in a new AI solution to manage storm load by automatically adjusting water levels in storage tanks; and asset improvement |
| Southern | £10m | The new funding commitment will deliver an estimated 120 fewer spills from storm overflows and will enable the following: expansion of optimisation activity; a real-time digital wastewater catchment control; an additional surface water pathfinder catchment; an additional programme of ground water infiltration reduction of both customer and public sewers; and an accelerated construction programme for wetlands benefitting Chichester Harbour. |
| South West | £32m | The new funding commitment will deliver an estimated 4000 fewer spills from storm overflows and will enable the following: significantly increasing Sewer Level Monitors by 31 March 2025; increasing sewer network cleansing in 2024 (already doubled in 2023); increasing structural defect repairs from 55 to 85 per month (Jan to June 2024); doubling installation of power relays at pumping stations; diverting groundwater at 30 key wastewater treatment works (£25m); doubling WwTW generator services (Jan to April 2024); enhanced inspections at all wastewater treatment works; and increasing storm storage by adding over 6,000m3 additional capacity to the network. |
| United Utilities | £39m | The new funding commitment will deliver an estimated 1700 fewer spills from storm overflows and will enable the following: AI analysis of networks to direct proactive maintenance; following a pilot this year, deploying interim solutions at 29 sites; rainwater separation, including industrial sized smart butts at schools; further improvements to their wastewater network; and ‘quick win’ improvements to existing assets, such as changing weir heights, removing infiltration and optimising pumping stations to reduce spills. |
| Wessex | £8m | The new funding commitment will deliver an estimated 200 fewer spills from storm overflows and will enable the following: a further 3500 sewer depth monitors; new smart network for sewer management; and infiltration reduction. |
| Totals | £180m |
- Some companies have already announced that they are taking forward additional investment to tackle storm overflows this year and are therefore not included in the overall investment figure. This includes Northumbrian investing an additional £29.8m this year to accelerate their spill reduction programme, and Yorkshire Water investing an additional £99m.
