Ofwat has proposed a £62.8m enforcement package following its finding that Anglian Water has breached its legal obligations in operating its wastewater treatment works and network.

Ofwat’s investigation found that Anglian Water has failed to operate, maintain and upgrade its wastewater assets adequately to ensure they could cope with the flows of sewage and wastewater coming to them. The company failed to have in place adequate processes and oversight by its senior management and Board to ensure its assets were performing adequately and that it was meeting the legal requirements expected of it.

Anglian Water and its shareholders will fund a total enforcement package of £62.8m which includes:

• Creating a £5.8m community fund that will support projects delivering environmental and social benefits for local communities, with a particular focus on restitution of the water environment.
• Investing £57m in developing and delivering ‘Excess Flow Management Plans’, to remove, attenuate or optimise wastewater flows in at least eight catchments in its region to provide local environmental improvements.
• Accelerating delivery of investment which the company had already planned for 2025-30 through its Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan. This includes earlier delivery of 36 storm tanks, 45 screens and 42 other deliverables.
• In addition, the company will develop and deliver a remediation and compliance plan to ensure that all its storm overflows are compliant with the legal requirements considered by our investigation.

Lynn Parker, Senior Director for Enforcement at Ofwat, said:

“Our investigation has found failures in how Anglian Water has operated and maintained its sewage works and networks, which has resulted in excessive spills from storm overflows. This is a serious breach and is unacceptable.

“We understand that the public wants to see transformative change. That is why we are prioritising this sector-wide investigation which is holding wastewater companies to account for identified failures. We are pleased Anglian Water has accepted that it got things wrong and is now focusing on putting that right and taking action to come back into compliance.”

Anglian Water has already taken some steps to restore its compliance and the performance of its wastewater assets. This includes a 2024 commitment from the company and shareholders to invest £100 million to improve its spills and pollutions performance.

A consultation will now be open to the public and key stakeholders to offer any final comments before Ofwat’s final decision is announced. The consultation can be found here.