Severn Trent Water: Exposed

The government gave them a £1.5 billion taxpayer gift in 1989.
Then wrote off £5 billion of sector debt so they could start debt-free.
Since then, Severn Trent alone has paid out £11.8 billion to shareholders.

When water was privatised in 1989, the government didn't just hand over the pipes and the pumping stations. It wrote off approximately £5 billion of accumulated sector debt — so the new companies would start their private lives with clean balance sheets. It also provided a £1.5 billion "green dowry" — taxpayer cash to fund early environmental improvements. Severn Trent began private life debt-free, with public money in its pocket.

What happened next? £11.8 billion in dividends left the company. The sector collectively accumulated £64–72 billion in new debt. And in 2024/25, the company paid out 158.9% of its statutory profit in dividends — meaning the gap was funded by taking out more debt.

Source: We Own It · Ofwat historic dividends dataset · Hall/University of Greenwich 2021

💡 Context · The Opportunity Cost

What £11.8 billion could have built instead

Severn Trent's shareholder extraction is not an abstract number. In Severn Trent's region alone (4.6 million households across the Midlands), £11.8 billion would have funded any one of these:

🏥 7 new NHS hospitals At the average construction cost of around £1.6bn each for a modern district general hospital.
🚰 ~1,180 miles of new water main At a typical £10m/mile rebuild cost for major Victorian-era mains.
🏠 £2,565 cashback to every household In the Severn Trent supply area — a flat refund of £11.8bn ÷ 4.6m homes.
👩‍⚕️ 590,000 nurses' annual pay At average UK nurse take-home of ~£20k/year. That's nearly the entire NHS nursing workforce in England.
🚆 Over half the cost of Crossrail The whole Elizabeth Line cost £18.8bn. Severn Trent's extraction alone covers 63% of it.
🌳 The entire Derbyshire £660m storm-overflow fix — 17 times over The 2050 Derbyshire programme is just 5.6% of what was paid in dividends.

Sector Debt (£bn) vs Cumulative Dividends (£bn) — since privatisation

Sector-level data. Sources: Ofwat financial resilience reports, Hall/Greenwich 2021, We Own It. Debt figures: £0 at privatisation (1989) → £64–72bn by 2023. Dividend figures include all 10 water and sewerage companies. Severn Trent's share: £11.8bn.

📈 What this shows

The water sector started life in 1989 with £0 debt. By 2023 it owed roughly £64 billion. In the same window, £78 billion flowed out to shareholders. Debt and dividends grew almost in lockstep — borrowing fuelled the payouts.

Severn Trent: Dividend per Share Growth (p/share) · Unbroken decade of rises

Source: Severn Trent Plc Annual Reports / Severn Trent dividend page. Policy 2020–2025: growth of at least CPIH — guaranteed shareholder returns, regardless of environmental performance.

📊 What this shows

Severn Trent's dividend per share has risen every single year for over a decade. The 2024/25 payout (121.71p) is 21.6% higher than in 2019/20. No bonus ban. No pause for pollution. No exception for record sewage spills. Just relentless growth — guaranteed by policy.

Payout ratio: 158.9% — they paid shareholders more than they earned.

In 2024/25, Severn Trent's ordinary dividend was 121.71p per share — a 4.2% rise on the year before. The payout ratio was calculated at 158.9% by Simply Wall St based on statutory profit metrics. In plain terms: the company paid out proportionally more than it actually earned. The gap was funded by borrowing.

This is a company with a legal monopoly over an essential public service, funding shareholder returns with debt that ultimately sits on its regulated asset base — which customers then pay to service through their bills.

Source: Severn Trent Annual Report 2024/25 · Simply Wall St payout ratio analysis

🍺 Pub Logic · The 158.9% In Plain English

Imagine you earned £1,000 in a month — and handed £1,589 to your investors.

Where does the extra £589 come from? You put it on a credit card.

That is exactly what Severn Trent did in 2024/25. They paid out more money to their shareholders than they actually earned, and funded the difference by going further into debt.

And because they are a monopoly — you cannot switch supplier — you are the one who will eventually have to pay off their credit card, through higher water bills, until the infrastructure is finally fixed in 2050.

121.71p

💰 Dividend/share 2024/25

Up 4.2% on prior year. An unbroken decade of dividend growth — guaranteed by policy.

£15.8m

👔 CEO pay — 5 years

Liv Garfield: £3.18m in FY2024 alone. In the same year, pollution incidents rose 24%.

£78bn+

💸 Total sector dividends since 1989

Across all 16 water monopolies. Severn Trent's cut: £11.8bn. Estimated figures via FT / Left Foot Forward.

£64bn+

⚠️ New sector debt since 1989

Started at £0. Now at £64–72bn. Customers pay ~20p in every £1 of bills towards debt service.

📜 "Before privatisation the government wrote off approximately £5 billion of sector debt and handed over a £1.5 billion green dowry. The companies started private life debt-free. They now carry over £64 billion of new debt — and have paid out more than £78 billion in dividends."

Sourced from: Wikipedia — Water privatisation in England and Wales; Hall/Greenwich 2021; Left Foot Forward (April 2024); We Own It

AMP8: £15 billion investment programme — funded by hiking your bills.
Derbyshire alone: £660 million — and you wait 26 years for it.

Ofwat approved Severn Trent's 2025–2030 capital programme at £15 billion — roughly double the previous period. Household bills are rising to fund it. In Derbyshire specifically, the storm-overflow remediation programme for rivers like the Derwent is costed at £660 million.

But here is the catch: it won't be completed until 2050. They have loaded the company with £10.1 billion in debt today, yet they are asking you to wait a quarter of a century — another 26 years of sewage overflows — before the local infrastructure is actually modernised.

The overflows were known. The fix was deferred. The dividends were not.

Source: Ofwat PR24 Final Determination (Dec 2024) · Severn Trent Derbyshire £450m programme announcement

Dividends per Share vs Bill Trajectory — Indexed to 2019/20 = 100

Both indices move in the same direction. Bills rose alongside dividends — while sewage spill events also rose. Source: Severn Trent Annual Reports; Ofwat bill data; approximate household bill estimates 2019–2025.

💷 What this shows

The shareholder dividend index and the household bill index tracked each other almost perfectly over five years. As your bill went up, so did the dividend cheque — they are the same upward trajectory.

Where Does Your Bill Go? (Approximate split — regulated company)

Approximate industry breakdown. Debt service + shareholder returns together account for roughly 20–25p in every £1 of your bill. Source: Ofwat financial modelling; Water UK; Hall/Greenwich 2021.

🥧 What this shows

Add the shareholder slice (~9%) to the debt-service slice (~13%) and you get roughly 22p of every £1 you pay going to investors and interest payments — not to pipes, treatment, or reservoirs. For a £500 annual bill that's £110 a year diverted away from infrastructure.

Five-Year Dividend Growth vs Pollution Incident Rise (2019/20 – 2024/25)

Dividend per share+21.6%

Reported pollution incidents (FY24 vs FY20)+24%

CEO total remuneration (FY24 vs FY20)+52%

EA enforcement budget (real-terms vs 2012 peak)-54%

Sources: Severn Trent Annual Reports (dividends, CEO pay); Shropshire Star June 2024 (pollution incidents); EA Annual Reports (budget). EA bar shows budget remaining, not decline.

~£660m

🚧 Derbyshire storm-overflow fix

Programme runs to 2050. 416 overflow sites. Paid for through your rising bills — while dividends continued uninterrupted.

2050

⏳ When the Derbyshire fix completes

24 more years of overflows to go. The infrastructure was under-sized and under-invested. Dividends were not.

~20p/£

📊 Of your bill goes to debt & returns

Roughly 20% of every household water bill services debt and shareholder returns rather than pipes and treatment. Source: Hall/Greenwich 2021.

The Ratio

£5,975

paid to shareholders in dividends
for every single sewage spill event
in the same reporting year

Calculation: £371m annual dividend paid (latest reporting) ÷ 62,085 spill events (EA EDM 2024)
Sources: Severn Trent Financial Reporting · Environment Agency 2024 EDM data

Or put another way

167

sewage spill events occurred
for every £1 million paid out in dividends

Reciprocal of above. 62,085 spills ÷ £371m × £1,000,000 = 167 spills per £1m.
This is not a fine. Not a penalty. Just: the simultaneous reality.

Lea Sewage Treatment Works, Derbyshire: 1,773 hours discharging into the River Derwent — in one year.

In 2024, just one site — Lea Sewage Treatment Works — performed as follows on the River Derwent:

💩 123 separate discharge occasions
⏱️ 1,773 hours of active sewage discharge
📅 74 full days of sewage flowing into the waterway

Severn Trent's explanation: combined-sewer capacity being exceeded during storm events. Translation: the infrastructure is too small for current demand.

Across the same catchment, the River Derwent received sewage from Severn Trent assets on 91 occasions, for 818 hours in 2024 alone.

This is not a freak incident. This is the operating reality while shareholders were receiving a dividend that has risen every single year for over a decade.

Source: Environment Agency EDM Annual Returns 2024 · Top of the Poops (topofthepoops.org)

62,085

☣️ Sewage spills — 2024

Company-wide. EA Event Duration Monitoring data.

1,773h

⏱️ Lea STW sewage hours — 2024

River Derwent, Derbyshire. 123 discharge events at a single site in one year.

818h

🌊 Total River Derwent discharge hours

91 events across the Derwent in 2024. Source: EA EDM / Top of the Poops.

£5,975

💩 In dividends per spill event

Calculated: £371m annual payout ÷ 62,085 spills. Same year. Same company.

Severn Trent — Spill Events vs Annual Dividend Payout

Both tracked together. As spills rise, dividends rise. No enforced connection between environmental performance and shareholder returns under the existing regime.

💩 What this shows

Both metrics climb together. The more raw sewage Severn Trent released into rivers, the larger the dividend cheque got. There is no enforced mechanism connecting pollution to pay — environmental performance and shareholder returns are completely decoupled.

Fines Paid vs Single Year Dividend — Severn Trent (£)

Court fines and enforcement undertakings are dwarfed by a single year of dividend payments. The economics of pollution: the penalty is smaller than the dividend. Sources: GOV.UK prosecution record; EA EU register; Severn Trent Financial Reporting.

⚖️ What this shows

A £2.07 million fine for dumping 260 million litres of raw sewage is dwarfed by the £371 million annual dividend. The fine is roughly 0.56% of one year's payout — closer to a rounding error than a deterrent.

⚖️

£2.07m

Total fine for "recklessly" discharging 260 million litres of raw sewage into the River Trent (2024)

District Judge Kevin Grego found a "reckless failure by the company to have in place and implement a proper system of contingency planning" at Strongford Wastewater Treatment Works. Severn Trent paid the fine. In the same financial reporting window, the company paid out £371 million in dividends to shareholders. The fine represents approximately 0.56% of that year's dividend payout.
Source: GOV.UK — Severn Trent Water fined £2m for 'reckless' pollution (Feb 2024) · Severn Trent Financial Reporting

Prosecution and Enforcement History — Selected cases

2020 £800,000 fine — Shropshire brook incident. Millions of litres of raw sewage released into an unnamed brook. COURT Source: Shropshire Star

2021 £600,000 Enforcement Undertaking — Alfreton Highfields Sewage Pumping Station, Derbyshire. "Considerable ecological damage to the brook for a distance of at least 2.5 km." Oakerthorpe Brook. DERBYSHIRE GOV.UK

2024 £2,072,658 fine — Strongford WTW, River Trent. ~260 million litres discharged illegally. Judge: "reckless failure". Company had pleaded guilty. Incident occurred Nov 2019–Feb 2020. COURT — GUILTY GOV.UK

2025/26 £4,627,424 total in Enforcement Undertakings — highest of any water company in a year that itself set a sector record. Sites include Marehay (Ripley, Derbyshire), Spernall WTW, and others. SECTOR RECORD GOV.UK · EA EU register

⚖️ "The penalty economics of water pollution: a £2 million fine for dumping 260 million litres of raw sewage. A £371 million annual dividend payout. You can see which number has more influence over corporate behaviour."

Editorial analysis based on GOV.UK court record and Severn Trent Financial Reporting

Severn Trent's own Church Wilne treatment works abstracts raw water from the River Derwent.
The Drinking Water Inspectorate has issued Severn Trent a Section 19 Undertaking on PFAS.

Church Wilne is the major water treatment works that draws raw water from the River Derwent and turns it into the tap water served across South Derbyshire, Nottingham and Leicester. In May 2024, Severn Trent launched a PFAS pilot trial at Church Wilne after the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) issued a Section 19 legal undertaking requiring the company to install mitigation to deal with rising PFAS contamination of the Derwent. Conclusions from that pilot were not expected until June 2025.

Translation: the regulator had to legally compel Severn Trent to investigate "forever chemicals" in your drinking water supply — and the company is only now trialling whether it can remove them.

Source: Severn Trent PR24 PFAS regulatory response (SVE4.28) · Drinking Water Inspectorate Section 19 Undertaking · University of York PFAS river research (2025)

🚱

990 ng/L average in the Derwent

University of York research sampled the Derwent and detected an average of 990 nanograms per litre of forever chemicals. The sampled stretch sits upstream of drinking water abstraction points, and the research concluded standard drinking-water treatment "isn't very effective at removing TFA" — one of the most prevalent PFAS variants.

⏳

"Forever" means forever

PFAS are called "forever chemicals" because their carbon-fluorine bond is one of the strongest in organic chemistry. They do not break down in nature. They do not break down in the human body. Standard sewage treatment plants are designed to filter out organic waste and bacteria — not microscopic, indestructible industrial chemicals. The burden of historical industrial pollution is passed straight into the domestic water supply.

🧪

Linked to cancer, fertility & immune harm

Long-chain PFAS such as PFOA and PFOS have been linked in peer-reviewed studies to:

🧬 Kidney & testicular cancer
👶 Reduced fertility
🦋 Thyroid disease
🩸 Elevated cholesterol
💉 Weakened immune response in vaccinated children

The European Chemicals Agency has proposed a near-total restriction. The UK has not matched it.

🚰 "While shareholders extracted £11.8 billion, the company that holds the monopoly on Derbyshire's drinking water had to be legally compelled by the Drinking Water Inspectorate to pilot-trial how to remove forever chemicals from the source supplying your tap."

Editorial summary based on Severn Trent's own PR24 PFAS regulatory response and DWI Section 19 Undertaking

Only 14% of English rivers meet "good" ecological status.
The River Derwent was ranked the 5th most polluted in England & Wales (2021).

According to the Environment Agency's own classifications:

🌊 Just 14% of England's rivers achieve "good" ecological status
🧪 Zero — none — meet good chemical status
💩 Sewage from treatment works and overflows alone is blocking 36% of water bodies from reaching good ecological status

The Derbyshire Derwent was ranked the 5th most polluted river in England and Wales by campaign group Top of the Poops in 2021. Its current Water Framework Directive ecological status is officially "moderate" — capped by:

🧪 Phosphates & pesticides
🌾 Agricultural fertiliser runoff
🪨 Sedimentation
🚽 Direct discharges from sewage treatment works

Source: Environment Agency river classifications · Environmental Audit Committee "Water Quality in Rivers" report · Top of the Poops 2021 · Catchment Data Explorer (Derwent)

How a single sewage spill kills a river — the eutrophication chain

💩 RAW SEWAGE ENTERS Massive nitrogen + phosphorus spike

→

🟢 ALGAL BLOOM Nutrients fuel runaway algae growth

→

🌑 LIGHT BLOCKED Aquatic plants can't photosynthesise

→

🐟 FISH SUFFOCATE Decomposing algae strips oxygen

→

🦦 FOOD CHAIN GONE Otters, kingfishers, dippers starve

Raw ammonia in untreated sewage is also directly toxic to freshwater invertebrates (shrimp, mayfly, caddis-fly larvae). When the invertebrates die, the food chain collapses from the bottom up. Source: Natural History Museum — "The deadly effects of sewage pollution on nature" · Wildlife Trusts pollution research.

100%

Of UK otters tested had PFAS in their livers

Cardiff University & ChemTrust study: 12 of 15 PFAS compounds were detected in over 80% of otters — sourced primarily from wastewater treatment works and sewage sludge.

300 yrs

Derwent was "fishless"

From the Industrial Revolution to the mid-20th century, the dammed Derwent was devoid of fish. Recovery only began in 2013 — and Severn Trent's overflows now actively undermine it.

2.5km

Of brook killed in one Derbyshire incident

Oakerthorpe Brook (Alfreton, 2021): "considerable ecological damage for at least 2.5km" — Environment Agency Enforcement Undertaking £600,000.

36%

Of UK water bodies blocked from "good" status by sewage alone

Per the Environmental Audit Committee's "Water Quality in Rivers" report. Sewage discharge is the dominant single cause of ecological failure.

🐟 Brown Trout · River Derwent

A cold-water salmonid that needs high dissolved oxygen and clean gravel beds to spawn. Eutrophication caused by sewage spills strips oxygen from the water and smothers spawning gravels in algal biofilm. A retired freshwater ecologist surveying a UK river after sewage spills found "barely any" invertebrates — cutting off the trout's food supply at source.

🦦 Eurasian Otter

A flagship recovery species. Cardiff University tested 50 otters that died between 2007–2009 for 15 PFAS compounds — PFAS were detected in 100% of them. Researchers traced contamination primarily to wastewater treatment works and the spreading of sewage sludge on farmland. The otters of England and Wales now carry the chemical signature of the sewage system in their livers.

🐦 Kingfisher & Dipper

Both species feed almost exclusively on aquatic invertebrates and small fish. When raw ammonia kills the mayfly, caddis and stonefly larvae, there is nothing left to eat. The Wildlife Trusts identify pollution — sewage chief among it — as the single biggest threat to UK waterway wildlife.

🦐 Freshwater Invertebrates

The base of the entire river food web. Mayfly, caddis-fly and freshwater shrimp populations are directly killed by ammonia toxicity from untreated sewage. One UK river that has had its sewage spills triple in a year was declared "ecologically dead" — a description applied to a watercourse where the invertebrate community has collapsed.

🦦 "They paid £371 million in dividends. They spilled sewage 62,085 times. And then we tested the otters — and found 'forever chemicals' from sewage sludge in every single one."

Editorial synthesis · Cardiff University PFAS otter study · Environment Agency 2024 EDM

The government holds no central record of staff moving between water regulators and water companies. Ofwat holds no records of its own employees who previously worked for water companies.

Liberal Democrat FOI research found that central government holds no data on former water-company employees now working for the Environment Agency, Ofwat, or the Drinking Water Inspectorate. Ofwat itself holds no records of employees who have previously worked for a regulated water company.

The body that sets Severn Trent's prices and approves its business plans has no systematic record of whether its own staff previously worked for Severn Trent.

Source: Liberal Democrats — "Sewage: warnings of revolving door between water companies and regulators" (2024)

Shane Anderson — Director of Strategy & Regulation, Severn Trent

Ofwat (~2010–2015) → Severn Trent (July 2015–present)

Five years at Ofwat, including delivering the PR14 price review — the process that sets how much Severn Trent can charge customers. Joined Severn Trent in July 2015 as Head of Economic Regulation. Promoted to Director of Strategy and Regulation in April 2020. He now leads Severn Trent's engagement with the same regulatory process he once ran from the other side. Source: Severn Trent biography · Severn Trent press release 2020

Dr Mike Keil — CEO, Consumer Council for Water (CCW)

Ofwat (climate policy) → Severn Trent Water (Asset Strategy) → CCW (CEO)

Moved from Ofwat (where he built the regulator's climate-change framework and assessed £2bn+ of investment) to Severn Trent Water (where he led asset strategy and the £350m Birmingham Resilience Scheme) — then to CCW, the statutory consumer watchdog for the water industry, where he is now Chief Executive. Source: CCW press release · Water Magazine · GOV.UK Adaptation Committee appointment

Jonathan Ashley — Head of Economic Regulation, Severn Trent

Ofwat (previous role) → Severn Trent Plc

Named in Liberal Democrat parliamentary research as a former Ofwat employee now holding the Head of Economic Regulation role at Severn Trent. Exact dates of Ofwat tenure remain unconfirmed in this document. ⚠ Dates unconfirmed Source: Liberal Democrats FOI research (2024)

EA Chair Alan Lovell — accepted £60 dinner from Severn Trent

Environment Agency Chair (enforcement body)

Via FOI disclosures in April 2024: the Chair of the Environment Agency — the body responsible for prosecuting water-company pollution — accepted hospitality from the industry he regulates:

🍽️ £60 dinner from Severn Trent Water
🏨 £200 dinner and hotel from Yorkshire Water
🥂 £96 dinner from Water UK (industry lobbying body) — in the same week Water UK proposed a 40% bill increase

The EA described these as "working meetings." The Liberal Democrats called them "chummy." Source: Lib Dem FOI disclosure (April 2024) · Hexham Courant

Environment Agency — Enforcement Budget Collapse & Prosecution Freefall

EA enforcement budget: £152m (2010) → £70m (2023). A 54% real-terms collapse. Source: EA Annual Reports; LRD.

🛡️ What this shows

The Environment Agency's enforcement budget shrank from £152m to £70m — a 54% real-terms collapse while sewage spills hit record highs. The watchdog was defunded as the problem grew.

Water company prosecutions fell from ~300/year (2012) to ~20/year (2023). A 93% collapse in prosecution activity. Source: Byline Times; EA data; parliamentary questions.

📉 What this shows

In 2012 the EA brought roughly 300 water-company prosecutions a year. By 2023 the number was 20 — a 93% collapse. The water companies didn't get cleaner. The prosecutor stopped prosecuting.

The water regulator (Ofwat) was abolished in July 2025 — described as "the biggest overhaul of the water sector since privatisation."

On 21 July 2025, the government announced Ofwat's abolition. The regulator that has overseen 35 years of privatised water — approving business plans, setting price limits, granting the framework within which £11.8 billion left Severn Trent's accounts — was deemed no longer fit for purpose.

The Public Accounts Committee described regulators as "missing in action". The NAO and PAC found:

🚰 Mains replacement rates have collapsed to a 700-year cycle at current pace
📉 Ofwat had financial resilience concerns over 10 of 16 major water companies
⚠️ Over 25% of EA wastewater inspections revealed permit breaches
🚫 The regulator was deemed no longer fit for purpose after 35 years

Severn Trent — despite £4.6m in enforcement undertakings (the sector's highest that year) and the £2m Strongford prosecution — was not subject to the bonus ban imposed on six other companies in June 2025. Its 4-star Environmental Performance Assessment rating placed it outside the trigger threshold.

It earned 4 stars by being the least bad in a sector that scored its worst overall rating since 2011.

Source: GOV.UK — Ofwat to be abolished (Jul 2025) · PAC water sector regulation (Jul 2025) · NAO report (Apr 2025)

📚 Primary Sources

All numbers below are pulled from official government filings, court records, regulator data and audited annual reports. Wildlife and PFAS sources sit in their own column on the right.

🏛️ Government & Regulators

💰 Company & Financial

🔍 Investigations & Campaign

Public Health, PFAS & Ecology

📋 Roll-up · All Data Sources At A Glance

Compiled May 2026. Every quantitative claim on this page is cross-referenced to at least one primary official source. If you spot an error, get in touch for immediate correction.

Environment Agency (EDM 2024 storm-overflow returns) · Ofwat (PR24 Final Determination, historic dividends dataset) · Drinking Water Inspectorate (Section 19 Undertaking, PFAS) · GOV.UK (prosecutions and enforcement undertakings) · Severn Trent Plc Financial Reporting · NAO (water sector regulation, Apr 2025) · Public Accounts Committee (Jul 2025) · Hall/University of Greenwich (2021) · We Own It · Liberal Democrats FOI research · Top of the Poops · University of York PFAS river research (2025) · Cardiff University & ChemTrust PFAS otter study · Natural History Museum & Wildlife Trusts ecological research.

You can't switch.

£1 in every £5
never reaches your water.

Your kids swim in this river.

It's full of shit.

Then it comes out of your tap.

And they won't finish cleaning it until 2050.

Severn Trent's rivers are full of shit.
So are they.

They started with £0 debt.
They extracted £11.8 billion.
Now they owe £10.1bn, and your bill is paying for it.

💸 The Wealth Extraction Machine

💷 Your Bills. Their Dividends. Same Direction.

💩 Sewage per £ Paid to Shareholders

🚰 What's In Your Glass?

🦦 Ecological Dead Zones

🚪 The Revolving Door

📚 Primary Sources

Spotted an error? Have a question?

You can't switch.

£1 in every £5never reaches your water.

Your kids swim in this river.

It's full of shit.

Then it comes out of your tap.

And they won't finish cleaning it until 2050.

Severn Trent's rivers are full of shit.So are they.

They started with £0 debt. They extracted £11.8 billion. Now they owe £10.1bn, and your bill is paying for it.

💸 The Wealth Extraction Machine

💷 Your Bills. Their Dividends. Same Direction.

💩 Sewage per £ Paid to Shareholders

🚰 What's In Your Glass?

🦦 Ecological Dead Zones

🚪 The Revolving Door

📚 Primary Sources

Spotted an error? Have a question?

£1 in every £5
never reaches your water.

Severn Trent's rivers are full of shit.
So are they.

They started with £0 debt.
They extracted £11.8 billion.
Now they owe £10.1bn, and your bill is paying for it.