Southern Water's data cannot be trusted, Havant council says

Southern Water has previously apologised for its failings

A council has said it cannot trust data supplied by a water company that has previously misreported information relating to its performance.

Havant Borough Council needs statistics provided by Southern Water to help it produce long-term plans for future building and infrastructure projects.

But the authority plans to use independent experts to review the data after the water firm was hit with probes and fines over its behaviour.

Southern Water said it was improving.

The firm was found to have deliberately misreported its performance by industry regular Ofwat in 2019, receiving a £126m fine.

In 2021, it was found guilty at a criminal court of 6,971 illegal spills from 17 sites and fined a record £90m.

Havant council has reported that a current "lack of trust'" in data provided by the firm "presents a risk to the process of producing a new local plan", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

'Investing £2bn'

Elizabeth Lloyd, cabinet lead for local plan, environment and water quality, told a full council meeting: "The actions of Southern Water over the past few years where these criminal activities have been found have rightly caused concern to members and our residents.

"That concern is not only because of the pollution but also because it leads them to question the capacity of the wastewater treatment works at Budds Farm and Thornham for more housing in the borough.

"It is then essential that all data and information used for the production of the new Building a Better Future local plan can be relied upon so the inspectors can find it to be sound in every regard."

In a statement, a Southern Water spokesperson said the firm was "working hard to improve performance" by investing £2bn between 2020 and 2025.

"Our major treatment works at Budds Farm is receiving a £22m investment increasing capacity for both treatment and in storm tanks," the spokesperson added.

"We work closely with Havant Borough Council and this summer we jointly launched the UK's first water quality monitoring buoy.

"Cutting storm releases is not something we can do alone - preventing rainwater from entering our network and potentially overwhelming it requires partnership working."