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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Sandra Laville

South West Water allowed to invest £24m rather than pay £19m fine

A South West Water worker next to a tanker lorry and a van in Brixham, Devon, after people fell ill with a waterborne disease in 2024.
A South West Water worker in Brixham, Devon, after people fell ill with a waterborne disease in 2024. Photograph: Hugh Hastings/Getty Images

South West Water has agreed to pay a £24m penalty for illegal sewage discharges into the environment from its treatment works.

The regulator for the water and wastewater sector in England and Wales, Ofwat, says the company, which has 1.8 million customers in Cornwall, Devon, the Isles of Scilly and parts of Dorset and Somerset, is being penalised for dumping sewage in breach of its legal permit conditions.

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