Water companies have set out a five-year plan to prevent 140,000 sewage overflow spills per year — but will ask for customer bills to rise by about £156 annually to fund overall improvements.
Providers will invest £96 billion in the second part of the decade — almost double the current levels — in proposals companies say will pay for 10 new reservoirs, cut leaks and stop the equivalent of 6,800 Olympic swimming pools-worth of sewage spills.
