LATEST UPDATE:The CPO Hearing took place on 23 – 25 September. We await the Tribunal’s decision which will determine whether the claims are allowed to proceed to full trial. Click here to find out more about your rights.

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What are the water cases about?

Your water company may have been overcharging you for your water bills.

Professor Carolyn Roberts, an environmental and water specialist, is bringing legal claims against a number of water companies for overcharging their customers. These companies have allegedly been misleading their regulators by misreporting the number of pollution incidents (discharges of wastewater from a company sewerage asset adversely affecting the water environment), resulting in higher customer bills.

These claims are collective actions which seek compensation for household customers who have paid, and continue to pay, higher water bills for the provision of sewerage services as a result of misreporting of pollution incidents by the six largest water companies to their regulators. More information on who may be eligible for compensation is available here. 

If you pay or have paid for wastewater services provided by one or more of the six water companies included in the claims, you could be entitled to compensation. We are bringing claims against each of these six water companies:

Thames Water

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Severn Trent

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Northumbrian Water

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United Utilities

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Yorkshire Water

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Anglian Water

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We estimate that millions household consumers in England are affected – are you one of them?

Check Your Eligibility

Your Proposed Representative

Professor Carolyn Roberts is the class representative bringing these claims (see more information on the role of the class representative here).  Professor Roberts has issued these claims because she believes that a number of water companies have overcharged their customers as a result of allegedly underreporting the extent to which they have been polluting the water environment in breach of the rules these water companies must follow.

Professor Roberts has been an environmental and water consultant since 1988, and has undertaken innovative work in environmental science, management and technology for over thirty years. 

Professor Roberts has instructed the law firm RPC to represent her in these collective proceedings.

You can find out more about Professor Roberts and RPC in the About Us section here.

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News Updates

  • Six water firms in England ‘overcharged customers by up to £1.5bn’

    Six water companies overcharged customers between £800m and £1.5bn by “significantly or systematically” underreporting the true scale of their sewage pollution of rivers and waterways, a tribunal has heard.

    In the first environmental competition class action against water companies in England, lawyers argued that the privatised firms had abused their monopoly position to mislead regulators over the amount of sewage they were discharging from their assets over the past 10 years.

    As a result, the companies, Thames Water, Yorkshire Water, Anglian Water, Severn Trent, Northumbrian Water and United Utilities, were able to charge customers higher bills than they would have been allowed to if they had provided the regulators with a true picture of their sewage pollution.

    Read more >>

     

  • ‘STINKERS’ 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.

    Read more >>

  • British water companies fight $2 billion lawsuits over sewage pollution

    Six British water companies under-reported sewage discharges and overcharged millions of customers up to 1.5 billion pounds ($2 billion) as a result, lawyers bringing a landmark lawsuit told a London tribunal on Monday.

    The utilities companies, including Britain’s largest water provider Thames Water, are accused of misleading industry regulator Ofwat about the number of pollution incidents, which meant they were able to charge higher prices to customers.

    Read more >>

     

  • Good Morning Britain 23 September

    Watch Good Morning Britain Show 23rd September 2024.

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  • Six English water companies accused of overcharging customers by up to £1.5bn

    Six water companies in England have been accused of overcharging customers between £800mn and £1.5bn by under-reporting the full scale of their sewage pollution, in a case that could pave the way for bill payers to receive hundreds of millions of pounds in refunds. In a competition appeals tribunal on Monday, lawyers for Carolyn Roberts, a former professor and environmental consultant, accused the privatised companies of abusing their monopoly position to mislead regulators over the amount of sewage they were discharging into rivers since 2015.

    Read more >>

  • How you could get money back on water bills as firms sued for £1.5bn

    Six of the UK’s biggest water companies have been taken to court this week in a case that could see them pay £1.5bn in compensation to their customers.

    The firms have been accused of under-reporting the number of raw sewage discharges they have made into waterways, allowing them to charge customers more than they would had they reported an accurate number.

    The six companies involved in the legal case are Thames Water, Severn Trent Water, Northumbrian Water, United Utilities, Anglian Water and Yorkshire Water.

    Read more >>