WATER company United Utilities said it shares “the government’s ambition for a step change in environmental performance.” This follows a new law brought forward that the government said will “give regulators new powers to take tougher and faster action” on sewage pollution.

The new Water (Special Measures) Bill sets out the government’s plans to allow the Environment Agency to more easily “bring forward criminal charges against law-breaking water executives” with tougher penalties including imprisonment for those who lead companies deemed to be failing to co-operate or obstruct investigations.

Water regulator Ofwat will also be able to ban bonuses if companies do not meet “high standards to protect the environment, their consumers, and their company’s finances.” Severe and automatic fines will also be brought in without the need for lengthy investigations as well as independent monitoring of every sewage outlet.

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, said: “The public are furious that in 21st century Britain, record levels of sewage are being pumped into our rivers, lakes and seas. After years of neglect, our waterways are now in an unacceptable state.

“That is why today I am announcing immediate action to end the disgraceful behaviour of water companies and their bosses. Under this Government, water executives will no longer line their own pockets whilst pumping out this filth. If they refuse to comply, they could end up in the dock and face prison time.”

In response to the bill, a United Utilities spokesperson said: “We share the Government’s ambition for a step change in environmental performance and we have put forward an ambitious investment plan to enable us to do just that, which is what customers tell us they want. We’re currently in discussion with our regulator Ofwat on the size of that plan which will improve our region’s rivers, lakes and seas and enable economic growth.”

In Wirral, statistics published by the Environment Agency on United Utilities (UU) show more than 1,000 hours of spills were recorded at seven outlets with the Bromborough Wastewater Treatment Works spilling for more than 4,000 hours. In total, sewage spills lasted for more than 21,000 hours in 2023, the equivalent of more than two years.

Across the North West, a total of 656,014 discharges were made from United Utilities’ storm overflows into the region’s waterways in 2023. Those lasted a combined total of 97,537 hours, which is also the highest of any water company in the country and equivalent to a single overflow pipe running for 75 years.

In Merseyside, one of the main problems United Utilities have previously said they have is that roughly 85% of sewers in Merseyside are combined which means when it rains, this mixes in with sewage. If there is too much rain in the system, this means this and any sewage has to be discharged to avoid coming back up in people’s houses and the more combined sewers in an area, the more likely there will be a discharge.

Calls continue to come locally from politicians about holding water companies like United Utilities to account for sewage pollution in lakes and rivers. At the end of July 2024, a motion put forward by Liberal Democrat councillors in Wirral was passed which called for an end to the practice after “growing public frustration with the increased frequency of sewage entering our watercourses and ending up in our river.”

Cllr Phil Gilchrist said he put the motion forward because “residents want this problem tackled,” adding: “We want United Utilities to be clear about what they plan to do and when. We need to see their programme. We need clarity on how the system can cope as more homes are built in Wirral.” The motion also called on the government “to seek a fair outcome for Wirral’s residents rather than unreasonable levels of profit to remote and unaccountable shareholders.”

United Utilities CEO Louise Beardmore has since responded with a letter to Wirral Council. The letter said she shared “their concern about the health of our watercourses and the need for greater investment” and following the adoption of the company’s investment plan offered to attend a meeting in 2025 “to outline what our plan will deliver.”

United Utilities said it has invested more than £3bn since 1985 and monitors 100% of storm overflows. Live data from the overflows can be found on United Utilities’ website but over half of discharge permits in the Mersey estuary are also owned by other organisations.

However she added: “I do need to pick up on the Council’s incorrect assertion about ‘unreasonable levels of profit to remote and unaccountable shareholders’. In fact, we typically invest twice as much as we make in profit and 37.5% of our shareholders are UK based (above the average for the FTSE100) including local authority pension funds.

“Around 80,000 of our shareholders are private individuals, including customers as well as current and former employees, many of whom have held their shares for over 30 years and who live in our local communities. The rate of return for shareholders is around 4% which is the same as that currently offered by many fixed rate savings accounts. If we did not give a fair rate of return for the money they put up front, then investors would go elsewhere and we would not be able to attract the level of funding for the amount of investment required.”