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.

View Now

FEATURED IN

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

Learn more here

Severn Trent

Learn more here

Northumbrian Water

Learn more here

United Utilities

Learn more here

Yorkshire Water

Learn more here

Anglian Water

Learn more here

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.

Register to be kept updated on the claims.

Register to Stay Updated

News Updates

  • The Times: Water firms could owe compensation to 20m customers over pollution

    About 20 million people could receive compensation from water companies via a legal claim alleging that firms have underreported sewage pollution. The first claim is being brought at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) against Severn Trent, but further claims will be brought in the coming months against five other water companies.
    Read more >>

  • Sky News: Water firms facing legal action over claims of pollution and customer overcharging

    Six English water companies are facing legal action over allegations they under-reported pollution discharges and overcharged customers as a result.
    Read more >>

  • ITV News: Water firms face legal action over claims of underreporting sewage discharges

    Six English water companies are to face legal action over allegations of underreporting pollution incidents and overcharging customers.
    Read more >>

  • The Guardian: Public could receive hundreds of millions as water firms face sewage lawsuit

    The public could receive hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation in the first class action against water companies which are alleged to have failed to reveal the true scale of raw sewage discharges, and abused their position as privatised monopolies.
    Read more >>

  • Landmark class action claim targets wastewater companies

    Law firm Leigh Day plans to file the UK’s first-ever “environmental” collective action against several wastewater companies accused of breaching the country’s antitrust rules, a week after an economic consultancy urged the country’s competition authority to open a probe based on the same allegations.
    Read more >>

  • Litigation funding secured for opt-out competition claims against UK water and sewerage companies

    Law firm Leigh Day plans to file the UK’s first-ever “environmental” collective action against several wastewater companies accused of breaching the country’s antitrust rules, a week after an economic consultancy urged the country’s competition authority to open a probe based on the same allegations.
    Read more >>