What Ofwat Told Newquay After the South West Water Vote

Newquay Town Council did not ask South West Water to do better. It asked the Government to take the company out of Cornwall altogether.

On 3 June 2026, at its Full Council meeting, the council formally resolved to issue a Vote of No Confidence in the management of South West Water. The next day its chief executive, Andrew Curtis, put the decision in writing to the Secretary of State for DEFRA, Emma Reynolds, in a letter that went a good deal further than the vote itself.

What the council demanded

The letter petitions the Government and Ofwat to remove South West Water from running Cornwall’s sewage and water systems and to hand ownership to a publicly owned body run as a public service. The council wants the company placed into Special Administration, a move it says would strip the current management of its mandate.

It sets out three reasons. The council says Cornwall’s residents pay the highest water bills in the UK while the coastline and rivers have become, in its words, conduits for raw sewage, with spill durations in 2025 and early 2026 closing beaches and hitting the tourism economy. It accuses the company of putting shareholder dividends and executive bonuses ahead of capital investment. And it argues that South West Water has lost its “social license” to operate and is now structurally incapable of meeting the environmental standards required by law.

“Cornish rivers and seas are the lifeblood of our economy and our identity,” the letter says. “We will no longer stand by while they are managed into decline.”

The council copied in the leader of Cornwall Council, Leigh Frost, the chief executive of Ofwat, and all six of Cornwall’s MPs: Noah Law, Andrew George, Anna Gelderd, Jayne Kirkham, Perran Moon and Ben Maguire.

What Ofwat said back

Ofwat replied the following day. The response came from Felicity Beverley, the regulator’s Director of Engagement, and it did not back the council’s central demand.

Ofwat said it rates South West Water as “average,” the same category it gave the company the year before, and that the firm had been a top performer for five years running on internal sewer flooding. It accepted there was more to do on pollution incidents and water supply interruptions, and pointed to targets from its 2024 Price Review, including cutting storm overflow spills by at least 21% by 2029-30.

On enforcement, the regulator said it concluded an investigation into the company’s wastewater operations last year and found that South West Water had breached its legal obligations by failing to maintain and upgrade its wastewater assets. The result was a £24 million package paid by the company rather than its customers, including £20 million aimed at reducing spills from specific storm overflows. Ofwat added that a separate investigation into the accuracy of the company’s reported performance figures is still open.

On the demand for Special Administration, Ofwat set out how narrow the route is. It said the ultimate sanction sits under the Water Industry Act 1991, that only the Secretary of State can give consent for the regulator to apply to the High Court, and that the court can step in only in limited circumstances. “These are high bars,” the letter said.