Severn Trent

History

The Severn Trent Water Authority was established in 1974. In July 1989, the Severn Trent Water Authority was partially privatised under the Water Act 1989, together with the rest of the water supply and sewage disposal industry in England and Wales, to form Severn Trent Water, with a responsibility to supply freshwater and treat sewage for around 8 million people living in the Midlands of England and also a small area of Wales.

In May 1991, it went on to acquire Biffa, a waste management business. In October 2006, Biffa was demerged from the group Severn Trent, and was subsequently listed separately on the London Stock Exchange. In January 2007, the American side of Severn Trent Laboratories was sold to HIG Capital.

In 1993 the company acquired the East Worcestershire Waterworks Company, a former statutory water company whose area was surrounded by Severn Trent's existing water supply area, and their operations were merged.

In September 2007, the company announced they would be closing its headquarters in Birmingham and relocating to a custom built office complex in the centre of Coventry in the autumn of 2010.

In June 2016, Severn Trent Water and United Utilities formed Water Plus in preparation for the water market deregulation, to provide the retail services for their non household customers, after being granted approval by the Competition and Markets Authority.

In 2017 Severn Trent plc acquired Dee Valley Water, a water-only company with an area adjoining Severn Trent Water's own. In 2018 the areas of the two operating companies were adjusted so that Hafren Dyfrdwy (the new name for the Dee Valley company) took on all Severn Trent Water's water supply and wastewater operations in Wales, and the small area of the former Dee Valley operation within England (an exclave at Chester) became part of Severn Trent Water.

Severn Trent made history in 2023 when it became the first FTSE 100 group to have an all-female top team following the appointment of Helen Miles as chief financial officer, joining Garfield as chief executive and Hodgson as chair.

In November 2025, it was announced that Liv Garfield  was to step down from Severn Trent after an 11-year tenure in which she became the longest-serving female FTSE 100 chief executive.

Operations

The main companies in the group are Severn Trent Water, Hafren Dyfrdwy and Severn Trent Services. Severn Trent Laboratories was rebranded as part of Severn Trent Services in 2010, to streamline the company and give it a single worldwide image, rather than a series of separate organisations with different identities. As with all water companies in the United Kingdom, Severn Trent is regulated under the Water Industry Act 1991.

, the company supplies about 4.6 million households and businesses in its area, rising from 3.7 million in 2008. Severn Trent Water has a call centre in Coventry, dealing with operational emergencies and billing enquiries, and two other call centres in Derby and Shrewsbury, which deal solely with billing enquiries. Its head office is the new custom built Severn Trent Centre in Coventry.

In October 2021 Severn Trent Water signed an initial partnership with energy technology platform Kraken Technologies Ltd in which the platform was used to source 100% renewable energy to power its operations, and to transition its vehicle fleet to be entirely electric by 2030. In October 2023 this partnership expanded into a license for the tech platform to drive customer service for 4.6 million customers, and enable the launch of smart products for smart meter customers.

Severn Trent was the only company to achieve 4 star status in the Environment Agency's annual Environmental Protection Assessment for 2024 – with confirmation of its sixth consecutive year of four-star EPA status, twice as long as any other British water company.

Regulation and criticism

In 2004, a water industry contractor, M Holleran Ltd., complained that Severn Trent had failed to follow the Utilities Contract Regulations 1996 correctly when appointing contractors for its maintenance programme for reservoirs, water distribution infrastructure and sewerage systems. Holleran had been left off a list of potential contractors used by Severn Trent because its annual turnover was lower than the level considered suitable by Severn Trent. Smaller companies were permitted to form joint ventures so as to aggregate their turnover but Holleran argued that the timescale allowed for such arrangements to be made was inadequate. When the issue went to court it was held that Holleran had failed to act "promptly and in any event within three months from the date when grounds for the proceedings first arose", and therefore their case was rejected.

In July 2007, the Mythe Water Treatment Works near Tewkesbury became inundated with water from the River Severn during the Summer 2007 United Kingdom floods. The water coming into the plant was contaminated, and this led to the loss of all running water for approximately 150,000 people in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury.

In July 2008, OFWAT confirmed that it had fined Severn Trent Water £35.8 million for deliberately providing false information to Ofwat and for delivering poor service to its customers. In July 2008, the company was fined £2m (reduced from a previous judgement of £4m) for poor information reporting and covering up misleading leakage data.

Despite improvements, according to Ofwat, the percentage of leakages from 2010 to 2011 was the highest in England and Wales, at 27%, representing 0.5 billion litres (500,000 tonnes) per day.

On 11 March 2016, Severn Trent customers in Derbyshire were issued a "do not use" notice due to high levels of chlorine detected in the water supply, leaving thousands of households without a clean, reliable water supply.

On 20 February 2024, Severn Trent Water was fined over £2 million for discharging more than 260 million litres of raw sewage into the River Trent from its Strongford Treatment Works, an incident that occurred between November 2019 and February 2020 but avoided catastrophic pollution due to high river flows from storms.

In December 2024, Severn Trent Water was accused by the BBC's Panorama of an accounting trick artificially inflating its balance sheet by more than a billion pounds. An investment ('Severn Trent Trimpley') that the company claims is worth £1.68bn in its accounts, was said to have no value to the overall business in reality, but made the company appear more financially robust, supporting payments to shareholders. Severn Trent denied the accusation, saying ''Panorama'''s allegations were "completely inaccurate".

In March 2025, Severn Trent Water faced backlash for dismissing a sewage worker after they posted on the company intranet condemning Hamas as "a group of violent and disgusting terrorists" on the anniversary of the October 7 attacks. The disciplinary action followed internal complaints that their language was derogatory and reflected poorly on the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Reservoirs

The company operates a number of reservoirs, many of which are accessible for recreational use. These include:

• Carsington Reservoir – River Derwent compensation flow pumped storage facility
• Upper Derwent Valley (Derwent, Howden and Ladybower Reservoirs) – Built by the Derwent Valley Water Board to supply the cities of Sheffield, Derby, Nottingham and Leicester
• Bartley Reservoir
• Draycote Water
• Foremark Reservoir
• Shustoke Reservoir
• Tittesworth reservoir
• Ogston Reservoir
• Linacre Reservoirs (non operational since 1995)
• Barby Storage Reservoir
• Severn Trent Water also runs the filtration works at the Elan Valley Reservoirs

References

References

1. "Annual Results 2025". Severn Trent.
2. "Severn Trent Water Authority, 1974-1989". University of Nottingham.
3. "Working within the community". severntrent.com.
4. Mark Milner. (4 April 2006). "Severn Trent to split its waste and water operations". The Guardian.
5. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2007_Jan_16/ai_n17117233 HIG Capital affiliate completes acquisition of Severn Trent Laboratories]
6. (27 February 1993). "Severn buys East Worcester Water". The Independent.
7. "Birmingham Post: Business news, local news, expert opinion". birminghampost.net.
8. "We're sorry...". stwater.co.uk.
9. (3 May 2016). "Severn Trent and United Utilities win approval for joint venture". The Telegraph.
10. (2 July 2018). "Ofwat confirms Severn Trent and Dee Valley licence changes". WWT.
11. Mendel, Jack. (2023-02-01). "Severn Trent becomes first FTSE 100 firm to have female chair, CEO and CFO".
12. Gosden, Emily. (2025-11-19). "FTSE 100 loses another female chief executive".
13. "Judgement: The Manchester Ship Canal Company Ltd and another (Respondents) v United Utilities Water Plc (Appellant)". Supreme Court.
14. "Severn Trent Water Limited Report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2021".
15. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080613090807/http://www.severntrent.com/server.php?show=nav.19 Severn Trent About us]
16. (20 September 2010). "Coventry's new Severn Trent Centre opens to staff". Coventry Telegraph.
17. Lempriere, Molly. (1 September 2021). "Octopus Energy collaborating with Severn Trent to develop renewable energy".
18. "Severn Trent set to revolutionise service for millions of customers with Kraken".
19. "Severn Trent Water awarded 4* EPA status – Company Announcement - FT.com".
20. Ware, Daniel. (2025-10-24). "Environment Agency's latest EPA report reveals lowest ratings since 2011".
21. "Water and sewerage companies in England: environmental performance report for 2024".
22. England and Wales High Court (Commercial Court), [https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Comm/2004/2508.html M. Holleran Ltd. v Severn Trent Water Ltd. [2004] EWHC 2508 (Comm)], delivered on 4 November 2004, accessed on 2 August 2025
23. Fenwock Elliott, [https://www.building.co.uk/comment/dont-delay/3044981.article Don't delay], published in ''Building'', 17 December 2004, accessed on 2 August 2025
24. (December 2017). "Battle to restore water begins". This is Gloucestershire }}{{dead link.
25. [http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/aptrix/ofwat/publish.nsf/Content/prs_pn2108_svtfne020708 Ofwat confirms Severn Trent Water fine, 2 July 2008, PN 21/08, Ofwat] {{webarchive. link. (20 August 2008)
26. (2 July 2008). "Severn Trent Water is fined £2m over false leakage data". The Independent.
27. (5 April 2012). "How much does your water company leak?". BBC News.
28. (2020). "Water supply: Question for Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. UIN 116503, tabled on 17 November 2020".
29. (2022). "Water supply: Question for Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. UIN 17959, tabled on 14 June 2022".
30. (11 March 2016). "People in Derbyshire told not to use water after high chlorine scare". The Guardian.
31. (2024-02-20). "Severn Trent Water fined £2m after sewage discharged into river".
32. (9 December 2024). "£1.68bn accounts trick inflated water firm's books". BBC News.
33. Croft, Ethan. (2025-03-23). "'I condemned the Oct 7 massacre. It cost me my job'". The Telegraph.
34. "Our Reservoirs". Severn Trent.
35. "About Linacre Reservoirs". Severn Trent Water.