South West Water accused of not being honest over drought projections

Shares in parent Pennon Group after EA says utility was 'complacent'

Shares in Pennon Group fell on Monday after its South West Water arm was accused on Monday of not being honest with regulators over how prepared it was for a drought in 2022.

Ofwat, the regulator for England and Wales, was responding to Environment Agency documents obtained by environmental campaign group Greenpeace under Freedom of Information which described South West water as "not well prepared", showing "complacency" over its supply situation.

“SWW were not honest, open and transparent with regulators about their drought projections and potential risks to security of supply,” the EA wrote in a July email to Ofwat. SWW "acted too late” in response to the drought, and that this “presented a genuine risk of loss of supply in west Cornwall”.

It added that: "SWW were not well prepared for drought, and a lack of resilience in their supply was exposed by the dry, hot weather in 2022."

SWW said it "strongly rejected" any suggestion it was not prepared.

"Despite facing a once-in-a-generation drought in the South West, no customer went without water supply," the water firm said.

An extremely hot summer in 2022 led to the first hosepipe ban in Cornwall for 26 years amid the continuing drought.

Last year SWW was fined £2.1m by the EA for illegal sewage dumping offences across Devon and Cornwall over a four-year period.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com