Regulation and criticism
In 2004, a water industry contractor, M Holleran Ltd., complained that Severn Trent had failed to follow the Utilities Contract Regulations 1996 correctly when appointing contractors for its maintenance programme for reservoirs, water distribution infrastructure and sewerage systems. Holleran had been left off a list of potential contractors used by Severn Trent because its annual turnover was lower than the level considered suitable by Severn Trent. Smaller companies were permitted to form joint ventures so as to aggregate their turnover but Holleran argued that the timescale allowed for such arrangements to be made was inadequate. When the issue went to court it was held that Holleran had failed to act "promptly and in any event within three months from the date when grounds for the proceedings first arose", and therefore their case was rejected.[25][26]
In July 2007, the Mythe Water Treatment Works near Tewkesbury became inundated with water from the River Severn during the Summer 2007 United Kingdom floods. The water coming into the plant was contaminated, and this led to the loss of all running water for approximately 150,000 people in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury.[27]
In July 2008, OFWAT confirmed that it had fined Severn Trent Water £35.8 million for deliberately providing false information to Ofwat and for delivering poor service to its customers.[28] In July 2008, the company was fined £2m (reduced from a previous judgement of £4m) for poor information reporting and covering up misleading leakage data.[29]
Despite improvements, according to Ofwat, the percentage of leakages from 2010 to 2011 was the highest in England and Wales, at 27%, representing 0.5 billion litres (500,000 tonnes) per day.[30]
On 11 March 2016, Severn Trent customers in Derbyshire were issued a "do not use" notice due to high levels of chlorine detected in the water supply, leaving thousands of households without a clean, reliable water supply.[33]
On 20 February 2024, Severn Trent Water was fined over £2 million for discharging more than 260 million litres of raw sewage into the River Trent from its Strongford Treatment Works, an incident that occurred between November 2019 and February 2020 but avoided catastrophic pollution due to high river flows from storms.[34]
In December 2024, Severn Trent Water was accused by the BBC's Panorama of an accounting trick artificially inflating its balance sheet by more than a billion pounds. An investment ('Severn Trent Trimpley') that the company claims is worth £1.68bn in its accounts, was said to have no value to the overall business in reality, but made the company appear more financially robust, supporting payments to shareholders. Severn Trent denied the accusation, saying Panorama's allegations were "completely inaccurate".[35]
In March 2025, Severn Trent Water faced backlash for dismissing a sewage worker after they posted on the company intranet condemning Hamas as "a group of violent and disgusting terrorists" on the anniversary of the October 7 attacks. The disciplinary action followed internal complaints that their language was derogatory and reflected poorly on the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.[36]
