Water companies’ customers could share £800m in compensation from sewage discharges lawsuit

Customers of England’s biggest water companies could share £800million in compensation if a lawsuit which kicks off next week is eventually successful.

The class action, the first of its kind, will begin on Monday and consider whether the firms failed to reveal the scale of their sewage spills and overcharged customers as a result.

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It involves Severn Trent, United Utilities, Yorkshire Water, Northumbrian, Anglian and Thames Water which together supply 34 million households.

They can increase bills if they meet Ofwat’s targets on service and environmental performance, including sewage spills from overflows.

Law firm Leigh Day and Prof Carolyn Roberts, who are bringing the case, claim they misled the regulator about the scale of their sewage spills.

They claim the companies were wrong to have charged customers more as they had not accurately reported pollution incidents.

The case involves testing competition law and claims the firms are abusing their position of natural monopolies as households cannot choose which firm services them.

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Currently, most water companies are urging Ofwat to allow them to hike bills in order to fund investment in leaky pipes and storm overflows — despite Environment Agency data showing a 54 per cent increase in the number of sewage spills last year.

Professor Roberts, whose skills are sought by police to track the movement of corpses in waterways, told The Sun: “The state of our rivers and seas is catastrophic.

“These firms have abused their positions and it is about time they were held to account.

“We have mapped sewage outflows across the country and there has been serious misreporting by water firms about when they have been releasing sewage into our waters. Customers are being overcharged and our waterways are being polluted.

Zoe Mernick-Levene, partner at law firm RPC, said that if the class action is successful, customers will be automatically be entitled to compensation as part of the opt-out claim.

A spokesman for Water UK, the industry’s trade association, said: “This highly speculative claim is entirely without merit.

“The regulator has confirmed that over 99 per cent of sewage works comply with their legal requirements.

“If companies fail to deliver on their commitments, then bills will automatically be reduced.”

The threat to Thames Water of a potential £159million compensation bill will weaken the troubled water firm’s finances further.

A spokesman said: “We are aware of the claims brought. Thames Water will defend the claim robustly.”

It is understood that someone from Ofwat will be attending the Collective Proceedings Order hearing which will take place over four days and decide whether there will be a trial.

Shein Factory Probe

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Fast-fashion giant Shein faces further political scrutiny as it prepares for a London listing.

Liam Byrne, chair of the Business and Trade committee, has called for the government to ban goods made in forced labour camps in Chinese region, Xinjiang.

It comes amid continued concerns about Shein’s wider supply chains.

Shein insists it has a “zero-tolerance policy for forced labour” and says it independently verifies manufacturers. However, it relies on sub-contractors who have little transparency and its recent audit included two cases of child labour.

The US has banned imports from Xinjiang and rebuffed Shein’s attempts to list in New York.

Mr Byrne said: “We can’t allow British business and consumers to be undercut or cheated in a race to the bottom on standards — especially when there are questions about whether forced labour is being used.”

iPhone 16 ‘£88bn Hit to Apple’

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Apple had more than £88billion wiped off its value yesterday after analysts warned about weak demand for its new iPhone 16 series.

Shares in the world’s most valuable company fell by as much as 3.3 per cent after reports that initial demand for its new phone was 12 per cent lower than last year’s iPhone 15.

The tech giant is still worth $3.28trillion (£2.4trillion).

Taiwan-based analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that “One of the key factors for the lower-than-expected demand for the iPhone 16 Pro series is that the major selling point, Apple Intelligence, is not available at launch alongside the iPhone 16 release.”

Analysts suggested this could put off consumers upgrading to the £799 handset.

Apple Intelligence, which includes artificial intelligence software ChatGPT built into its Siri assistant, will only be launched in the UK in a “localised” version in December.

26 Weeks for Dads

Deloitte has become the first of the “Big Four” accounting groups to offer equal parental leave.

From the start of next year new fathers at Deloitte will get 26 weeks of fully paid leave, the same as mothers. Currently, fathers only receive four weeks off with full pay.

Big firms including Aviva, NatWest and Vodafone already offer equal leave but trends are often set by what the likes of accountancy firms Deloitte, KPMG, PwC and EY do.