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• £11m to be paid by the company and its shareholders, for the benefit of the environment and customers.
• The company will also be required to rectify any identified breaches and ensure its future compliance.
• A public consultation will now follow before Ofwat’s final decision

Ofwat has today (11 November 2025) proposed an £11m enforcement package following its findings that Wessex Water failed to operate, maintain and upgrade its wastewater network adequately to ensure that they could cope with the flows of sewage and wastewater.  

Wessex Water and its shareholders will fund a total enforcement package of £11m, none of which will be paid for by customers or added to bills. This additional investment will be committed by the company and is over and above the investment Wessex Water is required to deliver under the price control and separate from the steps the company will need to take to become compliant. The package includes: 

• Helping private landowners to seal their sewer pipes to prevent unnecessary groundwater reaching Wessex Water’s network; 
• Reducing spills at specific storm overflows through investment which would have otherwise occurred beyond 2030; 
• Installing additional monitoring equipment to better enable management of flows at treatment works and storm overflows; 
• Helping customers to sustainably manage rainwater at their properties. 

This announcement marks the sixth case in Ofwat’s largest and most complex set of investigations into all companies and their management of their wastewater treatment works and networks. It follows the conclusion of cases against Yorkshire Water, Thames Water, Northumbrian Water, Anglian Water and South West Water earlier this year, which have resulted in enforcement action worth more than £240m. 

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

“Our investigation has found that Wessex Water failed to effectively operate, maintain and upgrade its wastewater assets, which meant there were spills from storm overflows when there shouldn’t have been. To their credit, the company has been one of the more proactive in investigating and rectifying the problems identified. However, there remain breaches which must be accounted for and corrected.

“We understand that the public wants to see transformative change. That is why we are prioritising this sector-wide investigation which has so far held five wastewater companies to account to the tune of £240m in enforcement redress, benefitting the local environment and the customers those companies serve.”

Wessex Water has invested more than £150 million since 2020 on upgrading storm overflows in its region. It already has plans in place for 2025-30 to address many of the compliance issues identified at its wastewater treatment works and network. However, there remains further measures that the company needs to take to ensure that it is fully compliant and which Ofwat will continue to closely monitor. 

A consultation will now be open to the public and key stakeholders to offer any final comments before Ofwat’s final decision is made. The consultation can be found here: https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/consultations/  

 Notes for editors  

• You can find a link to the relevant enforcement documents here: https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/regulated-companies/investigations/open-cases/enforcement-cases/ 
• Ofwat can impose financial penalties of up to 10% of a company’s relevant turnover. In deciding whether to impose a penalty and the level of that penalty, Ofwat will take account of the particular facts and circumstances of the case under consideration to establish the appropriate level of penalty to impose. 
• Had this enforcement package not been proposed, Ofwat would have proposed imposing a penalty where the money would have been returned to the Consolidated Fund operated by HM Treasury.  
• The £11m enforcement package the company has proposed is greater than if a penalty were otherwise imposed on the company (which would be £10m, or 2.5% of Wessex Water’s annual turnover). 
• Instead, the undertakings would mean that the money will remain in the water sector and be spent on making improvements to service for the benefit of Wessex Water’s customers and the local environment.