In a report on how environmental legislation like the Water Framework Directive should be implemented, Severn Trent said more could be done in the future but “we need to do it in a way that is affordable to all our customers.”
Severn Trent Water’s strategy and regulation director, Tony Ballance, pointed out that the company’s customers benefited from the lowest average bills in the country.
“We want to keep it that way. We also want to make the further environmental improvements our customers say are important to them. We believe it is possible to do both as long as the Water Framework Directive is implemented in a sustainable way,” he said.
Published today, the report sets out a number of recommendations for how the Water Framework Directive should be implemented.
These include urging ministers to prioritise the improvement of the country’s poorer rivers and urging the water industry to develop innovative, better value solutions “in a process supported by regulators”.
Ballance said: “According to the Environment Agency, our rivers are now generally in better health than at any time since the Industrial Revolution. This is in large part due to the £1,300 a household that water companies have invested over the last 20 years in environmental improvements. We can do more in the future, but we need to do it in a way that is affordable to all our customers.”