The economic regulator has brought together and analysed information published by companies in July. Ofwat reports that companies generally delivered good levels of service to most consumers in 2014-15, but is calling for the water companies to improve their performance on sewer flooding and pollution incidents. The regulator has also set out details of steps individual companies are required to take to further improve performance.

The indicators are measured in the following five areas:

• Customers
• Environmental impact
• Reliability and availability
• Financial
• Board leadership, transparency and governance

The number of properties flooded from overflowing sewers decreased (from 2,190 in 2013-14 to 1,551 in 2014-15). Ofwat said that although sewer flooding decreased, companies are still taking action to further improve their performance and it would be watching to see that companies continue to maintain and operate sewers to keep the risk of sewer flooding as low as possible.

On environmental impact indicators, Ofwat said the company reports and data from the quality regulators showed there were significantly fewer serious pollution incidents caused by water company sewerage assets last year. At an industry level there were around two incidents for every 10,000km of sewer in 2014 compared with around three incidents for every 10,000km in 2013. There was also a decrease in less serious incidents with 71 for every 10,000km in 2014 compared with 83 for every 10,000km in 2013. However, South West Water’s and Southern Water’s performance were both categorised as significantly below target or expectation for sewerage pollution incidents , with Southern Water also in the same category for serious pollution incidents

On greenhouse gases emissions, the companies reported that together they emitted the equivalent of about 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2014-15 – about the same as the previous year. Anglian Water and Thames Water were both ranked in the category identifying performance as significantly below target or expectation.

Click here to read more and to access Ofwat’s performance reporting analysis.