Severn Trent is the only water company to achieve the top-rated four-star award in the Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA) for a sixth consecutive record-breaking year.
The announcement by the Environment Agency (EA) comes as the Midlands’ water company continues to deliver its biggest ever investment programme in the region.
This recognition places Severn Trent as the top-performing water company in the EA’s assessment, consistently meeting and exceeding tightening environmental standards. This is across key areas including biodiversity, pollution prevention and sustainable water management.
Liv Garfield, CEO of Severn Trent said: “It’s the result of hard work, major investment over many years and strong collaboration with our partners and communities.
“It’s the sixth consecutive year that we have achieved the top-rated award, with a backdrop of tightening environmental standards. One year is a milestone – six years is an industry record, and our teams are proud of it. And with our largest-ever investment programme underway, we’re fully focussed on driving the environmental improvements our customers and communities expect.”
As part of the delivery to achieve four-star status in the 2024 assessment period, Severn Trent has:
• completed 580 environmental improvement schemes in just one year
• achieved 99% compliance with discharge permits across 648 wastewater sites
• delivered the joint best total pollutions reduction performance and the best pollutions performance across the past five years
• hit the target on ‘Supply Demand Balance Index’, which measures the water available for supply compared to potential dry year demand, thanks in part to Severn Trent’s best leakage performance, which has culminated in a leakage reduction of 16.8% across the past five years
Criteria have been regularly tightened over the years to reflect rising expectations for water company performance, so the bar is higher than ever.
Only Severn Trent Water received the top four-star rating for industry-leading EPA performance.
A shared mission
Severn Trent works closely with environmental charities, local authorities, and regional bodies to ensure its investment lasting value.
Joe Pimblett, CEO of Severn Rivers Trust said, “Severn Trent’s sixth consecutive four-star rating represents sustained progress, at a critical time for our rivers.
“However, as indicated by the continued dire ecological status of so many waterways, there is much more that must be done. This will require coordinated action and collaboration across sectors, particularly within the water, agriculture, and transport industries.
“The scale and ambition of Severn Trent’s current investment programme, suggests a serious intent to drive lasting change. Continued investment, transparency and innovation will be key to sustaining this momentum.”
Looking ahead
Almost ten months into the 2025 assessment period, Severn Trent is on track to achieve a seventh consecutive year of four-star environmental performance. A range of initiatives are underway to drive year-on-year improvement including:
• Upgrades to over 400 sewage pumping stations
• Investing £300m over the next five years to reduce pollutions
• Doubling the rate of mains renewal to further reduce leakage – 16% reduction in leakage off the back of what is already the industry leading performance
• Multimillion pound investment to reduce the use storm overflows, through targeted infrastructure upgrades including storm tanks to capture rainwater, surface water separation and smaller effective solutions such as flap valves have been delivered
• Investing in further utilisation of AI & technology to provide the most innovative response to environmental challenges and to predict pollutions before they occur.
