Severn Trent Water has paid £4.6 million to the Environment Agency in the past year to settle pollution cases, including £550,000 for an incident near Studley when a failure at Spernall Wastewater Treatment Works resulted in sewage being discharged into the River Arrow on 7th August 2020.
Other offences included unauthorised sewage discharges into the River Blythe in Solihull, Broadway Brook, in Evesham, and Marehay treatment works in Ripley, Derbyshire.
In total, a record £8.5m was secured from water companies during the 2025-26 financial year, the government said. Severn Trent’s payout was the highest of all.
The charges, known as enforcement undertakings, are paid as part of legally binding agreements between the watchdog and water firms instead of prosecution. The money will be reinvested into repairing harm to rivers and habitats, marking the highest annual total on record.
It will be directed to local charities who have the expertise to deliver targeted improvements in the affected catchments through measures such as habitat restoration, barrier removal and water quality improvements.
“Our focus is always on preventing pollutions before they happen, but when things do go wrong, we act quickly, take ownership and put things right,” said a Severn Trent spokesperson.
Water minister Emma Hardy said water companies must be held to account when they break the law, adding that the money would deliver immediate benefits without lengthy court cases.
The payments follow a major increase in enforcement activity, the government added, including 10,000 inspections of water company sites, more staff and increased powers.
Chief executive of The Rivers Trust, Mark Lloyd, said: “We would prefer that pollution events didn’t happen in the first place and continue to push for the necessary action to ensure this – including ambitious reform of the water system.”
