Revealed: Environment Agency still owns stakes in UK water companies
Revealed: Environment Agency still owns stakes in UK water companies
Information released following a freedom of Information request confirms the watchdog's pension fund continues to hold multi-million pound investments in highly polluting water firms.
Following a freedom of information request submitted by this newsletter the Environment Agency has finally published an updated list of holdings and investments held by the Environment Agency Pension Fund (EAPF).
Here is what we have found following an initial review of the data:
The EAPF has invested circa £10m in four UK water companies - Thames Water, Southern Water, Severn Trent and United Utilities.
The same four companies were responsible for dumping raw sewage into English rivers and seas for an eye-watering 896,199 hours in 2022.
The fund has investments valued at £6m in Thames Water - a firm fined £3.3m this year after it dumped millions of litres of sewage into two English rivers, killing thousands of fish.
A further £3.5m of investments are held in Southern Water Services - a company fined £90m in 2021 for dumping an estimated 16-23 billion litres of raw sewage into the ocean over several years.
The fund also holds a £2.2m investment in National Grid PLC as well as a further £3.3m invested in fossil fuel giants Total, Chevron and Equinor.
It’s been over a year since the Guardian first revealed the watchdog held £m’s worth of investments in the very same water companies it’s is trusted to regulate - since then England’s private water companies have unleased raw sewage into our waterways for over 1.7m hours in 2022 alone!
The Environment Agency apologised for the delay in releasing the updated list of companies it invests in and following our FOI request has now published the full dataset on it’s website - the first update since June 2022.
A copy of the latest investments held by the Environment Agency’s pension fund can be downloaded here:
An Environment Agency spokesperson said:
“The Environment Agency Pension Fund is legally separated from the operational and regulatory functions carried out by the Environment Agency and is subject to different legal rules, governance and decision making.
“In all instances where the EAPF has exposure to UK water company investments, it is through portfolios managed externally by Brunel Pension Partnership, a pooling provider for Local Government Pension Funds.”
We will continue to investigate the UK’s private water companies. Please subscribe to be kept up to date with the latest news and investigations.