Northumbrian Water has been named among the six "worst performing" water firms by Ofwat, with the regulator saying it is "deeply concerned" by the findings of a new report.
Northumbrian Water, which supplies water to homes and businesses in the region from Berwick in Northumberland to Middlesbrough in Teesside, was found to be "lagging behind" on metrics including water quality and supply interruptions in the regulator's annual assessment of performance and financial resilience.
Ofwat's assessment found key areas where the water companies are "letting down their customers and the environment", with the regulator revealing earlier this week that firms are failing to invest as much as they initially promised to carry out work to reduce spills and improve sewage treatment. Northumbrian Water spent just 48% of its water enhancement allowance to improve its water network, according to Ofwat's report.
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Northumbrian Water, whose area includes Tyne and Wear, County Durham, Northumberland and parts of North Yorkshire, performed "poorer" than its commitment level for drinking water quality.
Ofwat's report states : "To perform well in this metric, it is essential that companies monitor, manage and respond to risks which might cause a drinking water quality failure. A higher score indicates that companies are not doing this effectively."
Northumbrian Water scored 6.36, anything over a score of '2' makes the water company subject to a penalty.
Ofwat's report adds: "Companies must respond and take corrective action for each failure experienced, and these are reviewed by the Drinking Water Inspectorate on an on-going basis. The Drinking Water Inspectorate has responded to company failures and where progress is not evident the Drinking Water Inspectorate will consider an escalation of enforcement action."
Northumbrian Water puts its underperformance on water supply issues down to power outages caused by storms in late 2021 and early 2022, the report states.
The regular also found that most companies had “again failed to clearly explain the link between their dividend decisions and payments with performance delivery for customers”.
Ofwat added: “In particular, both Northumbrian Water and Portsmouth Water fell short of our expectations when considered in the context of the level of dividend they paid, which was significantly higher than our base expectations, and their relative financial resilience.”
A Northumbrian Water Group spokesperson said: "We’re disappointed by Ofwat’s assessment and do not feel it fully reflects our performance or the experience of our customers.
“The assessment looks at our performance on a smaller number of the different services that we deliver for customers and the environment.
“We are proud to have some of the best performance in the industry for customer service, are on track to be first in the sector to achieve net zero for carbon in the fight against climate change and were one of a small number of companies to achieve a four star Environmental Performance Assessment rating, however we also acknowledge that in some areas we need to continue to improve.
“We are investing £3.2billion in significant capital schemes and innovative solutions that will help fully deliver all our commitments to customers now and in the future.”
Northumbrian Water - privately owned Hong Kong-based company and registered off-shore in the Cayman Islands - did perform "at or better than performance commitment level" on pollution incidents, repairs, customer satisfaction, unplanned outages and sewage collapses, according to the report.
Ofwat also named Yorkshire Water, Southern Water, South West Water, Thames Water and Welsh Water as the worst performing firms in the country.
Ofwat chief executive David Black said: “In too many areas, water and wastewater companies are falling short when it comes to looking after customers, the environment and their own financial resilience. We are clear: these companies need to address this unacceptable performance as a matter of urgency."
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