Southern Water

Southern Water Services Limited
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryWater industry
Founded1989
HeadquartersWorthing, West Sussex, England
Area served
Key people
  • Keith Lough (Chairman)
  • Lawrence Gosden (CEO)
Products
Production output
  • 0.529 Gl/day (drinking)
  • 0.730 Gl/day (recycled)
Services
Revenue
  • Increase£0.829 billion (2017–18)
  •     £0.809 billion (2016–17)
Number of employees
2,092
ParentMacquarie Group
Websitewww.southernwater.co.uk Edit this at Wikidata

Southern Water is the private utility company responsible for the public wastewater collection and treatment in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent, and for the public water supply and distribution in approximately half of this area. Some areas within the Southern Water region are supplied by a number of smaller water supply companies. Southern Water supplies an area totalling 4,450 sq. km. and serves 2.26 million customers.[1]

Southern Water is regulated under the Water Industry Act 1991 and since 2007 has been owned by Greensands Holdings Limited, a consortium of investors representing infrastructure investment funds, pension funds and private equity.[2] Currently the largest shareholders are JP Morgan Asset Management (40%), UBS Asset Management (22%), Hermes Infrastructure Funds (21%) and Whitehelm Capital (8%).[3]

In June 2019, Ofwat proposed a fine of £126 million as a result of Southern Water's failures to operate its wastewater treatment works properly and deliberately misreporting its performance. Ofwat found that failings had resulted in unpermitted and premature spills of wastewater from treatment works, with wastewater being released into the environment before going through the required processes.[4]

In 2020, Southern Water pleaded guilty to 51 offences related to discharging untreated sewage into the sea,[5] and was fined £90m.[6]

  1. ^ "Water Resources Management Plan 2015-40" (PDF). Southern Water. 15 October 2014. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  2. ^ "Greensands ownership of Southern Water". Southern Water. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  3. ^ "Greensands Holdings Limited Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2018" (PDF). Southern Water. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  4. ^ "Notice of OFWAT's proposal to impose a penalty on Southern Water Services Limited" (PDF). Ofwat. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  5. ^ "Southern Water dumped raw sewage into sea for years". the Guardian. 6 July 2021. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference fine was invoked but never defined (see the help page).