Water companies dumping sewage can be sued for the first time after landmark Supreme Court ruling

Water companies can be sued for dumping sewage in Britain's waterways following a landmark Supreme Court ruling.

The decision marks a new chapter in the ongoing scandal and could 'open the floodgates' for citizens to take legal action against water companies who routinely tip filth into rivers and the sea, experts said.

In a pivotal test case that has been fought through the courts since 2018, judges overturned a finding that waterworks giant United Utilities cannot be forced to pay for discharging raw sewage from storm outfalls into the Manchester Ship Canal.

The Manchester Ship Canal Company Ltd originally went to court seeking damages from the utilities firm.

Following a ruling by the High Court in 2021, which found that the Manchester Ship Canal Company had no cause of action against the company, the firm was effectively entitled to 'pollute the canal...free of charge' - a decision upheld by the Court of Appeal. 

But the Supreme Court has now found that failure by water companies to upgrade sewage infrastructure which is inadequate to deal with heavy rainfall - the main cause of sewage discharges into UK waterways - does not prevent companies from being sued.

In a joint ruling, Lord Reed and Lord Hodges said the owners of waterways have 'fundamental common law rights' to sue for damages - regardless of whether sewage discharges are deliberate or negligent.

Last night, the two groups who brought the case welcomed the judgement.

Environmental Law Foundation co-director and casework manager, Emma Montlake, said: 'Our water environments have been regularly polluted with untreated sewage, water biodiversity denuded and degraded with impunity by private water companies.

'A national scandal doesn't come close to describing what we have put up with. This is a glad day for environmental justice - not just for the public, but for nature.'

Good Law Project's interim head of legal, Jennine Walker, said: 'This is a sensational victory and a real boost to the clean up of our rivers, waterways and seas.

'It gives people stronger legal tools to turn the tide on the sewage scandal and hold water companies to account, after our toothless and underfunded regulators have failed to do so.

'This landmark ruling should empower people and businesses to use the courts to challenge industrial-scale polluters like United Utilities, who have put profits and the shareholder interest over protecting our environment'.