WATER industry regulator Ofwat has confirmed South West Water will pay a more than £20million enforcement package.

The company must fund a £24million package, with Anglian Water having to pay £62.8million.

It comes after Oft found that both companies breached their legal obligations in operating their wastewater treatment works and networks.

These outcomes follow two separate public consultations on the draft decisions, published on July 29 and July 10 respectively.

These packages are in addition to the investment that the companies will need to make to remedy breaches Ofwat’s investigations found in order to ensure their future compliance.

The investigations found that both companies failed to operate, maintain and upgrade their wastewater assets adequately to ensure they could cope with the flows of sewage and wastewater coming to them.

The companies failed to have in place adequate processes and oversight by their senior management and Board to ensure assets were performing adequately and that they were meeting the legal requirements expected of them, Ofwat says.

With the conclusion of these cases, Ofwat has now closed five wastewater investigations in 2025, which has resulted in enforcement action worth more than £240m.

Lynn Parker, Senior Director for Enforcement at Ofwat, said: ‘Our investigations found failures in how Anglian Water and South West Water have operated and maintained their sewage works and networks, which has resulted in excessive spills from storm overflows.

‘These are serious breaches and are unacceptable.

‘We understand that the public wants to see transformative change.

‘That is why we are prioritising this sector-wide investigation which is holding wastewater companies to account for identified failures.

‘We are pleased both companies have accepted that they got things wrong and are now focusing on putting that right and taking action to come back into compliance.

‘We expect all companies to do the same so that customers can regain confidence in their water company and the critical service they provide’.