Analysis by Guildford MP Zöe Franklin Reveals Latest Figures Showing Thames Water Sewage Dumping More Than Tripled

“Not only a scandal, but an insult” on the day Thames Water bills increase by 31%.

Guildford Constituency MP Zöe Franklin has analysed the Environment Agency’s latest figures and is “horrified” by her findings. 

The latest figures, covering 2024, show Thames Water dumped sewage in our local waterways: 

• 94 separate times
• for a total of more than 944 hours
• the equivalent of 39 continuous days
• three times more than 2023 figures 

Statistics from 2023 showed 38 separate spillages, covering 300 hours. 

Zöe Franklin MP said: “I was horrified to see the appalling increase in the amount of sewage dumped in our waterways, and on the day everyone in Guildford and our villages is seeing their water bills increase by 31%, it is an even bigger insult. 

“Failing Thames Water is still paying bonuses to senior executives and shareholders while taking on even more debt on top of the £19bn it already owes its creditors.  

“We are all seeing our bills going up from today. And a third of what we pay is spent on repaying the interest on the company’s debt. 

Ms Franklin continued: “One lifelong Guildford resident wrote to me saying how sad he is to have seen the countryside decline so far since his youth. And it has been heartbreaking reading all the letters from schoolchildren, some still at primary school, who are worried about the damage Thames Water is doing to our environment.  

“One family told me their bill from today will be going up to £670 a year, an increase for them of nearly 50% since last year. “Is this a sort of joke?” they asked. Of course, they know it’s not. It’s a reality for all of us. 

The Liberal Democrats are campaigning for failing Thames Water to be made a “public benefit company”, where profit is no longer put ahead of serving its customers and protecting the environment. It is calling for OFWAT to be scrapped and replaced by a new regulator with the powers and the determination to hold water companies to account. 

Zöe Franklin added: “These latest figures are scandalous. The harm that Thames Water has caused to the waterways and countryside of Guildford and our villages is a disgrace.  

“Thames Water’s environmental vandalism cannot be allowed to continue.  

“I’d invite the company’s senior executives to look these schoolchildren in the eye and have to explain that because of their failures, in years to come those children may well be looking back with regret, just as that gentleman is already doing.”  

Environment Agency Event Duration Monitoring figures can be found here.