Ben Maguire, Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall, is calling for Susan Davy, Chief Executive of Pennon Group to resign following what he describes as the company’s “repeated and unacceptable failures” to prevent sewage dumping across Cornwall and the South West’s beaches and waterways.

Writing in an open letter to the Pennon Chief published yesterday, the MP said:

“The scale of the crisis under your leadership is now intolerable. The Environment Agency reported a staggering 530,000 hours of sewage overflows in 2023 alone, an 83% increase on the previos year.”

He wnt on to say that South West Water has “consistently failed to deliver the infrastructure improvements desperately needed to address this crisis”, suggesting that it had instead “chosen to expand” by purchasing other water companies like Sutton and East Surrey Water.

The letter continued:

“While the Pennon Group saw its revenue climb 10% to £908 million between 2023-2024, and distributed generous divinends to shareholders, your company has raised water bills and done little to prevent ongoing environmental damage….

“Adding insult to injury, your decision to forgo a bonus but instead increase your total compensation from £543,000 to £860,000 does nothing to reassure us that you take these failures seriously.”

He concluded by saying that after “a decade of failed oversight” first as Chief Financial Officer and now as Chief Executive Officer, it was “abundantly clear” that change was needed at the very top of the organisation and that the people of Cornwall and the South West did “not have trust or confidence” that she could “lead the urgent changes required.”