Water summit aims to decide how best to spend the fines paid by South West Water
Those wishing to take part in the summit, next month in Kingsbridge. are being urged to register
Last updated 9th Sep 2025
A first-of-its-kind summit is being planned in Devon to decide how best to spend the last fines given to South West Water - as the water firm is today told to pay more by the regulator.
The summit in October will be discussing how best to improve the water quality in the Avon, Gara, Slapton Ley and Kingsbridge Salcombe Estuary where roughly two thirds of problems are caused by farming.
The up to £2 million from the Government and regulator's Water Restoration Fund phase two will look at community solutions - and what joint local actions can be taken.
Councillor Louise Wainwright is the chair of the Avon River Group and says the county has been very forward-thinking.
"Agriculture is responsible for about 60 per cent of the pollution in Devon,” she said
“But there's a lot of good practice here, like for example planting buffer zones of trees along the river banks."
She's praised community and campaign groups for already working together, adding: "Devon County Council, I think, is the only council that actually has a cabinet member for water quality and Councillor Paul Arnott will be at the summit."
Mrs Wainwright says the summit will not be finding solutions for South West Water, but instead using the money from fines to address other issues which the firm does not have responsibility over.
She says it's a start, adding: "I don't think the fines are punitive enough and should be much higher and the asset management plans that Ofwat have agreed in the past have been too lenient."
The summit takes place on Saturday October 4 in Kingsbridge and is aimed at those who want to play a role in delivering the change - including landowners and farmers.
Anyone wishing to find out more is asked to email [email protected]
There's more about the Devon-based Blue Print For Rivers group here
What other fine has South West Water been given today?
Today, Tuesday Septeber 9, 2025, regulator Ofwat confirmed a £24 million enforcement package to be paid by South West Water and its shareholders, for the benefit of the environment and their customers. Anglian Water was also told it must pay £62.8million.
Lynn Parker, Senior Director for Enforcement at Ofwat, said: “Our investigations found failures in how Anglian Water and South West Water have operated and maintained their sewage works and networks, which has resulted in excessive spills from storm overflows.
"These are serious breaches and are unacceptable. We understand that the public wants to see transformative change. That is why we are prioritising this sector-wide investigation which is holding wastewater companies to account for identified failures.
"We are pleased both companies have accepted that they got things wrong and are now focusing on putting that right and taking action to come back into compliance.
"We expect all companies to do the same so that customers can regain confidence in their water company and the critical service they provide.
"The investigations found that both companies failed to operate, maintain and upgrade their wastewater assets adequately to ensure they could cope with the flows of sewage and wastewater coming to them.
"The companies failed to have in place adequate processes and oversight by their senior management and Board to ensure assets were performing adequately and that they were meeting the legal requirements expected of them."
The enforcement documents can be found here
What has South West Water said to this latest enforcement action?
CEO, Susan Davy said: “We are pleased that Ofwat has completed its review into wastewater at South West Water as part of its sector wide investigation, and that it has accepted our ringfenced investment programme of £24m to spend even more to further reduce spills and tackle sewer misuse.
"For South West Water, Ofwat’s findings related to historical issues. I have always said that when things go wrong, it is how we respond and put things right and that is exactly what we are doing.
"As well as spending more to further reduce spills and tackle sewer misuse, our £24m investment has seen us establish a Nature Recovery Fund to benefit environmental groups in Devon and Cornwall and the wider community. This is in addition to the £760m we are already investing over the next 5 years to reduce the use of storm overflows across the region."
A spokesperson for the firm added: "Our largest ever investment of £3.2bn investment will see further improvements across our customers priorities – securing safe, clean drinking water, reducing the use of storm overflows across the regions’ bathing waters and protecting the environment, with investments in renewables. We are serious about tackling pollution, and we have allocated £760m to reduce storm overflows across the South West Water region over the next five years. As Ofwat noted, this work has included more than £16m investment in 21 wastewater treatment works and the ongoing implementation of a £100m storm overflow reduction plan. We installed monitors across 100% of our entire network a year ahead of the government’s target, vastly improving our ability to identify and rectify any issues as quickly as possible through enhanced reporting systems."