A legal action against South West Water over sewage pollution in Exmouth, Budleigh Salterton and Lympstone has been expanded to include coastal towns across Devon and Cornwall.

From today onwards water companies will be required to pay households in England up to £2,000 in compensation payments for water service failures including disruptions to supply, sewer flooding and low pressure.

The Government has today launched a consultation to double reimbursement for water company customers when their basic water services are hit.

Over six weeks since South West Water first issued a Boil Water Notice following a cryptosporidium outbreak which at one stage impacted 16,000 households and businesses in the Brixham area, the notice still remains in place for a number of customers.

Thames Water is the last of six UK water companies to have a legal claim issued against it via the Competition Appeal Tribunal for allegedly misleading its regulators as to the number of discharges of untreated sewage it made into rivers, lakes, coastal areas, and other waterways causing damage to the environment.

Ofwat and CCW have told Yorkshire Water they must provide better customer service, after failing to provide adequate support to residents whose water supply was seriously affected over the course of a fortnight at the end of October 2023.

The Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) has applauded seven water companies for boosting compensation for people that are left without running water – and called on the rest of the industry to follow suit.

Ofwat is seeking to simplify licence conditions for water companies, including proposals to shift the current focus on the bureaucratic form of a Code of Practice on issues including leakage to focussing instead on the information to be provided to customers.

Water industry regulator Ofwat has issued a call for evidence to inform a review looking to update and uplift the compensation provided to customers when they are without access to water.

Thames Water has announced that it will make discretionary payments of £2,500 to school affected by recent water supply issues and offer an education package of visits to Thames Water sites and talks by staff on STEM subjects.