SaralnamaNOTICE: English water companies spent £16.6m on legal fees to fight actions over environmental breaches like illegal sewage spills. Thames Water spent £7.5m, the highest amount. South West Water used £17,380 to challenge customer claims. Southern Water spent £2.6m on seven regulatory actions. Yorkshire Water paid £1.7m for lawyers during an investigation that led to a £40m fine. MPs say this money should have been used to fix water infrastructure instead. The information comes from company reports to a Commons committee on 15 Aug 2023. (Updated 2 Sep 2025, 23:34 IST; source: link)
Key Points
- NOTICE: English water companies spent £16.6m on legal fees to fight actions over environmental breaches like illegal sewage spills
- Thames Water spent £7.5m, the highest amount
- South West Water used £17,380 to challenge customer claims