Southern Water CEO says 'too much rain' to blame for record number of sewage spills

The CEO of Southern Water has told ITV Meridian that "too much rain" is to blame for record levels of sewage discharges in 2023.

Lawrence Gosden took over the reins in 2022, following what had been a difficult period for the beleaguered supplier.

He told ITV Meridian's Matt Teale that the amount of rainwater getting into the existing sewer system was overwhelming parts of the system, forcing it to discharge wastewater into our rivers and seas.

He denied that under-investment was to blame, insisting that Southern Water had put in £10 billion of capital in the past 30 years, and was making a string of improvements to the network.

Use our interactive map to see where Southern Water had the most spills in 2023.

Environment Agency data shows that during 2023, Southern Water pumped 317,285 hours of sewage from monitored storm overflows into our waterways, across 29,494 incidents.

Areas worst affected include Chichester Harbour and the Isle of Wight, which saw thousands of hours of sewage discharged between them.

It was named as one of the worst performers nationally, and was given just two stars by the Environment Agency in its latest rating.

Mr Gosden admitted that the current system was designed to use overflows in the event of extreme pressure on the network and that the company was doing more to change this.

Watch: Matt Teale grills Southern Water CEO, Lawrence Gosden, on the company's track record.

"Last year was the wettest winter on record. Sewer overflows are fundamentally a pressure relief valve for the sewer system," he told ITV Meridian.

"When it rains like it did over the winter, and I think we all saw that incredible rainfall, that system is going to operate more because that's just how the existing system works."

He denied accusations of low investment over the past decades, instead telling Matt Teale that the company has put in billions.

"Ten billion pounds worth of investment over 30 years has built a string of industrial plants right across the south coast. We never had any of that 30 years ago", he said.

"The real issue here is there's too much rainwater getting into the sewer system.

"Tarmacking of driveways, tarmacking of streets, increasing the amount of impermeable area in our urban environments means there's too much water coming in.

"So all of our solutions, like the one sitting behind us, is to effectively make it porous so that rainwater can get away into the natural ground rather than roll over tarmac. That's where we need to be investing and that's what we need to be doing in the future."

Earlier this month, new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the Government will need to “get to grips with” sewage and pollution, while Environment Secretary Steve Reed proposed new measures to reform the sector and “fix our broken sewage system”.

It followed Ofwat setting out new plans aimed at delivering a 44% reduction in spills from storm overflows compared to levels in 2021.

The regulator is still monitoring Southern Water following a previous enforcement case in 2019.

You can watch the full interview on ITVX here.

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know...