Water companies have been ordered to return £158m to customers via lower bills next year after missing key targets on issues like pollution.
The industry regulator Ofwat announced the rebate following its annual review of water and wastewater companies’ performance in England and Wales.
Chief executive David Black warned companies that “money alone” would not solve the issue and there needed to be a change in culture.
Industry body Water UK have been approached for a comment.
Ofwat assesses the performance of the 17 largest water and wastewater companies in England and Wales each year against key targets, for issues such as sewer flooding, supply interruptions and water leaks.
For the second year in a row, no company achieved the top rating, although four companies did show an improvement from last year.
“Companies must implement actions now to improve performance… and not wait till government or regulators ask them to act,” David Black said.
For the worst performing companies, failure to meet the targets means they will now have to collectively return £157.6m to customers on their bills for 2025-2026.
Thames Water will have to make the largest repayment to customers of £56.8m, despite improving its overall performance from last year.
However, this is only expected to amount to a reduction of a few pounds on bills and will be dwarfed by the expected long-term increase of £94 per household over the next five years, which Ofwat is currently proposing.
This price rise is still being negotiated with water companies, who argue that even higher bills are needed if they are to afford the infrastructure improvements required to tackle some of the issues raised in this performance report.
One of the key targets for companies is to reduce pollution incidents, which were meant to fall by 30% between 2020 and 2025.
Companies had so far achieved a 15% reduction over the last few years. But that improvement has been almost wiped out by the significantly higher number of incidents last year.
The industry has said that although this performance was unacceptable, the record levels were due to heavy rain and increased data collection.
But Ofwat CEO David Black said: “This year’s performance report is stark evidence that money alone will not bring the sustained improvements that customers rightly expect.
“It is clear that companies need to change and that has to start with addressing issues of culture and leadership. Too often we hear that weather, third parties or external factors are blamed for shortcomings.”
