An annual Environment Agency (EA) report has found South West Water is still one of the worst-performing water companies in the UK.

The EA published its Environmental Performance Report on Tuesday (July 23) and it said South West Water achieved three out of seven targets and maintains a two-star rating.

This year, five water companies are rated as requiring improvement (2 stars), one company is rated as good (3 stars) and three companies achieved 4 stars.   

 South West Water has been rated a two-star company which means it requires improvement. For the thirteenth year, it scored red for total pollution incidents with 194 pollution incidents in total (111 incidents per 10,000km of sewer) compared to 108 pollution incidents (62 incidents per 10,000km of sewer) in 2022.

It also performed significantly below target for discharge permit compliance with 12 failing sites, the worst of all the companies. 

The annual report shows majority of water companies failing to get the basics right. Five water companies nationally have been rated ‘requiring improvement’ 

The report went on to say SWW was the worst-performing company for pollution incidents in the Environmental Performance Assessment’s 13-year history. 

 The aim of the report is to highlight where improvement in water company performance is required and push for continuous improvement across the sector. 

Clarissa Newell, Environment Manager for the Environment Agency’s Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly area, said: “South West Water’s environmental performance last year was really disappointing and has affected the performance of the sector as a whole. 

“Consistently poor performance is not tolerated, we’ve ensured the company has plans in place to reduce pollution and improve permit compliance and we’re stepping up our regulatory scrutiny this year. 

“South West Water was fined over £2m last year.  With an increase in dedicated staff to regulate water companies and a quadrupling of site inspections, companies failing to comply with the law will be penalized.”   

In response, a spokesman for South West Water said: "Delivering improvements in our environmental performance remains our top priority.

“Our 2023 EPA performance maintains many of the important improvements we delivered last year, including no serious Category 1 pollutions.

“Nevertheless, we recognise that further improvement is required. We have always been clear: one pollution is one too many. We continue to be open and transparent and have met our target for self-reporting pollution incidents with our highest ever performance.

“With a rapidly changing climate and evolving weather patterns, it is essential that we continue to make the investments needed to deliver long-term resilience, affordability and environmental protection. With PR24, we will deliver a doubling in investment over the next five years to reduce the use of storm overflows and pollution incidents.

“We continue to take action on a broad range of environmental issues that matter most to our customers, including on areas that are not included in the EPA assessment, such as storm overflows and coastal bathing water quality.”

Read the full report on the government website.