Environment Agency Water Industry Regulation teams have carried out over 1,800 inspections of Severn Trent Water’s wastewater sites, contributing to the Environment Agency’s 10,000 annual water company inspections target for the year.
Water industry regulators, including newly formed teams recruited over the past two years to drive improvements in the water industry, have been inspecting sites across the region.
The checks are there to prevent pollution by ensuring that water companies are operating as they should and within their permits, and to set out actions they must take if they are not.
The inspections of wastewater assets, such as sewage treatment works and storm tanks, are up 118% from last year and have already been successful in uncovering breaches in Severn Trent Water’s permit conditions this past year. As a result, the Environment Agency has notified the water company of over 530 actions they must undertake across their wastewater network to comply with those permits, as well as any further action the EA is considering. 81% of the sites investigated were found to be compliant with their permits.
Geoff Craig, Water Company Regulation Manager at the Environment Agency, said:
“We already carry out more inspections of Severn Trent Water than any other water company in England, due to its large number of wastewater facilities.
“Our new regulation teams have been working tirelessly, completing a record number of inspections to identify breaches in their permits and hold them to account.
“While Severn Trent Water is an industry leader in environmental performance, we are not allowing it to rest on its laurels. Over the past year, we have been attending more minor pollution incidents to make sure Severn Trent responds quickly and works to reduce the number of incidents.
“Water companies need to be operating and maintaining their infrastructure in a way that protects the environment, and changing their operating culture so that issues are identified and rectified before they cause damage to our rivers and seas.”
Helen Wakeham, Environment Agency’s Director for Water, said:
“In our role as regulators of the water industry, we are changing how we operate, with better data, our largest ever enforcement workforce, and greater powers to do our job effectively.
“Inspections are a vital preventative measure, with our teams nationally issuing over 3,000 actions to water companies, including repairing sewage works and upgrading their infrastructure.
“Together, this will drive meaningful improvements in performance, hold persistent offenders to account, and ultimately create a cleaner water environment.”
Although many breaches in permit conditions were relatively minor in terms of the potential for pollution to occur, they are indicative of a water company’s approach to managing and maintaining their operations to protect the environment. Even minor breaches in permits must be actioned by water companies to ensure operations are compliant with permit conditions. More serious breaches, where there is a higher potential for pollution, can be referred for further investigation, which could lead to prosecution or other enforcement action.
The most common permit breaches by Severn Trent Water relate to emission limits, operations in emergency conditions, accessible sampling point locations, and monitors found in incorrect permitted locations.
This concerted action by the Environment Agency is already bringing benefits. After a site inspection at Sneinton Sewage Pumping Station in June 2025, the Environment Agency instructed Severn Trent Water to update its operating procedures, clean tanks and channels, and make necessary repairs. Whilst no breaches were recorded against the water company’s permit at the time of the inspection, the actions the Environment Agency identified were needed to prevent future breaches that might occur during wet weather (further details below).
As well as rooting out operating issues, all the data and information gathered are enabling the Environment Agency to build better intelligence on water company operations and trends in non-compliance, which in turn will better inform its regulatory approach going forward.
More regulatory staff, increased monitoring of storm overflows, greater powers, and more inspections are part of a suite of measures to improve the water industry’s environmental performance. Investment in new infrastructure is also essential, and the Environment Agency and Natural England have already secured £22.1bn in water industry investment commitments for the next five years to upgrade and improve infrastructure to meet tighter environmental standards. Severn Trent Water is set to invest £15bn in water industry investment commitments over the next five years.
