Sewage spills spark calls for overhaul of ‘broken’ water industry
Thousands of hours of sewage spills have been recorded in Cotswold watercourses over the last year
There are calls for Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, to overhaul the “broken” water industry, after thousands of hours of sewage spills were recorded in Cotswold watercourses over the last year.
Data compiled by environmental charity the Rivers Trust suggest there were at least 3,470 hours of sewage spillage in the North Cotswolds during that time.
Its map suggests sewage spilled into the Evenlode at Moreton-in-Marsh for 1,143.25 hours and there were another 367.28 hours of spillage at Broadwell.
At Andoversford, there were 1,137.75 hours of spillage into the Coln while in Bourton-on-the-Water sewage spilled into the Windrush for more than 791 hours and another 30 or so hours at Northleach in 2025, according to the map.
Liberal Democrat county councillor, Paul Hodgkinson (Bourton-on-the-Water and Northleach), is now demanding that Andy Burnham make the radical overhaul of the water industry one of his first acts as Prime Minister.
His party is calling for water companies to be put into special administration immediately and be permanently restructured as a mutual run for the benefit of customers.
It wants all existing water companies to transition into public-benefit mutuals, owned by the people rather than the state, ensuring they are run for public health and the environment instead of private profit. And they want a powerful new clean water authority to be set up to enforce strict environmental standards.
Cllr Hodgkinson was recently joined by his party’s national leader Ed Davey at Andoversford, which has been subject to large sewage spillages in recent years.
“For years, people across our area have watched in anger as rivers like the Coln and Windrush have been pumped full of filthy sewage, all while foreign asset managers and corporate executives pocket billions,” Cllr Hodgkinson claimed.
“It is an absolute insult to local families that Thames Water is reporting profits while our local environment is routinely trashed and our water bills continue to rise.
“Andy Burnham has a clear choice in his first weeks in Number 10: stand up for communities like ours, or let the same broken, polluting system continue.
“We need a clean break from the failed privatisation experiment – wiping the slate clean of vulture capital debt and handing our water infrastructure back to the people who actually use and rely on it.”
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Conservative MP for the North Cotswolds, has also been lobbying on the issue and has held public meetings with all the main water companies for almost 20 years.
He said: “These have produced significant results over the years, for example the mile long, meter wide overspill pipe in Moreton in Marsh, providing flood prevention for the southern half of the town, following the terrible flood in 2007.
“Importantly, during the last Government in 2021, we passed the Environment Act, which for the first time obliged water companies to put in meters to measure the amount of output of sewage from their pipes.
“The regulator Ofwat, has Asset Management Plan (AMP) cycles that are five year regulatory and investment periods for water and wastewater companies in England and Wales. We’re currently on AMP 8, which has a list of the larger investment programmes, of which several are in the constituency.
“Thames Water serves most of the North Cotswolds and is in deep financial trouble, with a debt of £17 billion. Because of this, they have applied to be exempt from this current AMP.
“I have been pressing the Defra Secretary of State for some while to put Thames Water in short term administration, which would then enable it to be sold off to the private sector and capitalised properly.”
He believes the Lib Dems’ proposal to move water firms into mutuals is short of detail on how it would actually work in practice and what it would cost the taxpayer.
“Full nationalisation of all water companies would cost in excess of £100 billion,” he added.
A Thames Water spokesperson said the water firm takes its responsibilities to customers and the environment extremely seriously. And that taking action to improve the health of the environment and rivers is a key focus for them.
“Our latest results show Thames Water cut pollutions by 18 per cent and serious pollutions by 27 per cent,” a spokesperson said.
“Thames Water’s Event Duration Monitoring returns for 2025 also showed discharge events were about three times lower than the previous year with shorter spill durations.
“The Liberal Democrats have told media the central claim in their press release about discharges is incorrect.
“Thames Water is not ‘dumping’ sewage. When our sewer network and treatment works are overwhelmed by excessive rainwater or groundwater, storm overflows discharge into waterways and this is heavily diluted.
“The system was originally designed this way to prevent sewage backing up into peoples’ homes. We are committed to improving our environment and this is one of the reasons that Thames Water is currently delivering the biggest upgrade to its network in 150 years, with a record £2.7bn spent in 2025/26, the equivalent of more than £7m a day.
“Regarding our recapitalisation, we continue to work with all parties to reach an agreement that supports Thames Water’s long-term financial stability and ensures the uninterrupted delivery of our biggest infrastructure upgrade in 150 years while continuing to meet the needs of our 16 million customers.”