sewerage

All but one of the nine English water and sewerage companies were rated as "requiring improvement" - or worse - by the EA, in a year where serious pollution rose by 60% versus 2023.

When the sites are cleared, then essential services such as water, sewerage and electricity can be restored, he says.

If the firm does go bust, households will still have drinking water and sewerage services.

Water UK, the industry body for sewerage companies, has previously said spills are "unacceptable", but that it had a plan "to end water sewage flowing into all waterways" which involved significant infrastructure upgrades.

Five of these were from sewerage assets and were all category two.