SOUTHERN Water is "not delivering for its customers" according to a new annual assessment of water companies' performance.

The review, conducted by Ofwat showed that water companies have made progress towards meeting targets to tackle issues such as leakage, but some environmental records are "still not good enough".

Rating company performance when it came to delivering for customers, Southern Water was found to be lagging behind, along with Thames Water, Bristol Water, South East Water and SES Water.

Severn Trent, Anglian Water, and Portsmouth Water were the top performers across a number of key operational areas.

This comes after a burst water main belonging to Southern Water caused houses to be evacuated just last week.

The same issue also took place at Botley Mills earlier this year, prompting a rescue effort from businesses that were flooded as a result.

The assessment also reported that wastewater services are "not good enough" with only three wastewater companies achieving their target for reducing internal sewer flooding.

Commenting on the report's findings David Black, Interim Chief Executive at Ofwat, said: "Over the past year we have seen some areas of progress in water company performance, most noticeably on tackling leakage and maintaining a reliable supply of services through the pandemic.

"But, on environmental measures some companies are still falling short and they are not doing enough to confront the grim consequences of internal sewer flooding.

"Companies lagging behind need to catch up with the best performers and they need to do so quickly."