Anglian Water keeps two-star rating as serious pollution rises

Anglian Water recorded 433 pollution incidents across its water and wastewater assets in 2025, the second-highest total among England’s nine water and sewerage companies, and retained the Environment Agency’s two-star Environmental Performance Assessment rating. The rating means improvement is required and has not changed since 2021.

Dr Robin Price, director of quality, environment and assurance at Anglian Water Services, said the company had reduced pollution events by 16% against 2024 and storm overflow spills by 62%. Despite those reductions, Ofwat categorised the company as “on-track” in its Water Company Operational Performance Report 2025-26.

What drove the red rating?

The Environment Agency’s company-specific assessment counted 368 pollution incidents from Anglian Water’s sewerage assets in 2025, down from 437 in 2024, but placed the company in the red category for its total pollution incidents metric.

Anglian Water recorded 12 serious pollution incidents, compared with seven in 2024. That total stood against a green-rating target of no more than one incident, Price said “more work was needed,” particularly on serious pollution incidents, which he identified as the main driver of the company’s assessment.

Three primary causes accounted for 82% of pollution incidents during 2025:

• Foul sewer blockages
• Civil and structural failures of underground assets
• Power supply network failures affecting pumping stations

Blockages alone caused 37% of incidents. Anglian Water works with Environmental Compliance and Services to help food service establishments prevent fats from entering sewers, alongside operational interventions and its Just Bin It campaign. The company said those measures had reduced expected blockages by 63% in areas where high volumes of unflushable items, including wet wipes, had been identified.

What is the investment programme delivering?\n

Anglian Water’s Asset Management Plan 8 runs from 2025 to 2030 and is the company’s largest investment programme to date. More than £2bn is due to be invested in environmental improvements across the East of England through 2,611 schemes, making this a five-year spending commitment rather than a completed investment total.

Within the latest reporting period, the company completed all 144 Environment Agency environmental improvement schemes by their planned deadlines. The assessment gave Anglian Water a green rating for delivery of its Water Industry National Environment Programme.

The programme covers:

• Reducing storm overflow spills
• Improving final effluent quality at water recycling centres
• Increasing river resilience during low flows
• Protecting and enhancing biodiversity

Anglian Water also reported improvements in treatment works compliance and reductions in the amount of nutrients, including phosphate, entering the environment.

What does the assessment leave out?

The company improved its reporting of pollution incidents, with the Environment Agency recording that 94% were self-reported in 2025, up from 88% in 2024.

According to Anglian Water, phosphate levels in rivers across its region were 80% lower than 30 years ago, while 340 storm overflows had been permanently taken out of operation. The company also said 96.3% of its designated bathing waters received Good or Excellent ratings, the highest proportion in England since bathing water regulations were introduced in 2015.

Price argued that the existing assessment did not “capture all environmental improvements,” including river and asset health or the delivery of low-carbon interventions such as nature-based solutions. He called on the UK government to establish a balanced scorecard covering long-term social, environmental and economic outcomes. Such a system would give regulators, government and the public a clearer measure of improvements delivered through the sector’s investment programme.

The Environment Agency’s national assessment nevertheless showed the wider industry challenge: England’s nine water and sewerage companies earned 16 of 36 possible stars in 2025, three fewer than in the previous year.

The decisive regulatory milestone is the next EPA cycle, when the question is whether Anglian Water can reduce its 12 serious incidents toward the green threshold of one as AMP8 runs through 2030. A UK government decision on the proposed scorecard could broaden how performance gets measured, but it would not replace the incident thresholds governing the company’s current rating.