Caroline Voaden: South West Water’s actions speak louder than its promises

It is a bit of a cliché to say actions speak louder than words, but sometimes they really do. 

Take South West Water’s (SWW) response to the cryptosporidium outbreak, for instance, which affected the Brixham area in May 2024 and resulted in over 100 confirmed cases of a nasty gastro-intestinal disease. 

Here are SWW’s words: before the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee in February last year, the former CEO, Susan Davy said she viewed SWW’s customers like shareholders; she claimed the environment was among the company’s top priorities; and that she was committed to speaking to local media should another crisis like the cryptosporidium outbreak happen. 

And then their actions: last week, SWW pleaded guilty to charges brought by the Drinking Water Inspectorate, accusing them of supplying water unfit for human consumption during the cryptosporidium outbreak; in September last year, the company received a substantial fine for other sewage offences; and Susan Davy’s first interview about the cryptosporidium outbreak happened a year after the crisis, in which she belatedly apologised. 

The gap between rhetoric and reality is jarring, but SWW are not alone in this. Head to the websites of any of our private water companies and you will find language that in no way matches the companies’ behaviour. 

South East Water, for example, claims to be “providing the water service you deserve”. In reality, the day after SWW pleaded guilty, South East Water was hit with a £22m fine by the industry regulator for “multiple supply disruptions” affecting more than 286,000 people in Sussex and Kent. 

Similarly, Yorkshire Water states: “providing essential water and wastewater services is only the start of what we do”. This is one is almost morbidly ironic given Yorkshire Water is among the water companies that makes the most use of bailiffs to collect customer debts. 

The point I am trying to make here is that when it comes to our water industry the rot goes deep. There is no corner of the country that has not felt the impact from our broken industry. No matter how much water companies talk about their customers or the environment, we all know who their priorities really are. 

Increasingly, it appears the government knows this, too. In October 2024, the government commissioned Sir Jon Cunliffe, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, to do a wide-ranging report on the water industry. When it came last summer, the report was devastating.

“There is no simple, single change, no matter how radical,” Sir Jon wrote, “that will deliver the fundamental reset that is needed for the water sector.” Public trust, he said, had been shaken by pollution, financial difficulties, and mismanagement. 

SWW’s plea before Exeter Magistrates Court will have done nothing to change that sentiment. If anything, it will reinvigorate calls for the government to go further and faster to change our water industry. 

Last summer, the government finally started to overhaul our water industry after Sir Jon’s report arrived. They promised to abolish the industry regulator, Ofwat, and pool its powers, along with the Drinking Water Inspectorate’s and some functions from the Environment Agency, into a new, single regulator. 

Since then, progress has been glacially slow. We are failing to deliver the serious refit needed; the Liberal Democrats want to see the government think imaginatively about this issue, including by making water companies mutually owned by customers and professionally managed. 

SWW’s admission of guilt and the trauma and illness many in Brixham experienced during the cryptosporidium outbreak shows why we cannot allow the status quo to continue. 

Fundamental change is long overdue.