Environmental Performance Assessment report 2024

Each year we release details of water company performance. 2024 data can be found here: Environmental performance assessment (EPA) star ratings 2011 to 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

South West Water has again been rated a 2-star company, meaning it requires improvement. It has never risen above a 2-star rating since the EPA began. In 2024 it was responsible for 189 pollution incidents, just 5 less than the previous year. Four of these were classed as serious pollution incidents.

The beauty of the Devon and Cornwall coastline brings both visitors and stress to the water and sewage network. That is a big challenge for South West Water and improvement is within its reach. It needs to get better at building for the future rather than responding to failure.

We inspected 335 South West Water sites and assets last year and we are committed to doubling the number of site and asset inspections by April 2026 as part of our overall goal of 10,000 inspections.

To ramp up our regulation we are nationally investing in 500 additional staff including environment officers, data analysts, enforcement specialists and technical experts, as well as team leaders and managers. We have developed new digital systems and significantly increased the number of water company inspections - in 2024/25 we delivered over 4600 water company inspections across the country and we are on track to deliver 10,000 in 2025/26.