Wessex Water will pay £11 million toward upgrades after the industry watchdog found it failed to properly manage its wastewater network.

The water company, which serves around 2.9 million customers in the South West, was made to pay the enforcement package by regulator Ofwat.

By agreeing to the extra investment in its network, the firm avoids having to pay a fine.

It will be paid for by shareholders and not through customer bills, the watchdog confirmed.

Wessex Water failed to operate, maintain and upgrade its network to ensure it could cope with flows of sewage and wastewater, Ofwat found in its investigation.

The investment package will go towards a series of upgrades, including helping private landowners to seal their sewer pipes to avoid unnecessary groundwater reaching its network, and bringing forward investment into reducing spills at specific storm overflow areas.

Money will also be spent on installing monitoring equipment and helping customers to sustainably manage rainwater at their properties.

Ofwat said Wessex was the sixth case it had completed in its wider wastewater investigation, which has resulted in £250 million in fines and enforcement packages.

Lynn Parker, senior director for enforcement at Ofwat, said: “These cases are a crucial part of holding water companies to account and driving the transformation of the water sector that the public wants to see.”

Wessex Water had said it “regrets the impact our wastewater performance has had on customers and the environment”.

The company said the investment package “will tackle the problem directly” and that it was planning to invest £300 million in its sewerage infrastructure by 2030.

New Delhi: Well stocked granaries, low oil prices and longer-lasting drivers of core disinflation are likely to keep India inflation benign in FY27 as well, according to a new report. 

HSBC Global Investment Research said in its report that “we do not forecast more RBI repo rate cuts, but the risks, if any, are of more easing, if growth disappoints”.

November CPI inflation came in at 0.7 per cent (on-year), in line with market expectation. Despite a sequential uptick of 0.4 per cent (on-month), the annual prints remained depressed due to base effect.

Excluding gold, headline CPI remained in deflation (-0.1 per cent in November compared to -0.6 per cent previously).

“Deflation in food prices continued for a third month in annual terms. Sequentially, food prices rose 0.5 per cent on-month after two months of contraction. Vegetables prices picked up after falling for two straight months along with a rise in the prices of protein items like egg, meat and fish,” said the report.

“Gold prices kept core inflation elevated. With a weight of 1.1 per cent in the CPI basket and prices up 59 per cent in November, gold alone explains c63bp of CPI inflation. Our preferred definition of core (excluding food, energy, housing and gold) had been steady at 3.2 per cent y-o-y in 3Q25, and has now fallen to 2.5 per cent in November,” said the report.

Following a sharp fall in October, November goods inflation remained benign.

According to the report, strong cereal production, well-stocked granaries, and winter disinflation are likely to help keep a lid on food inflation over the near future.

“And it is not just easing food prices. The high base of last year is likely to keep CPI inflation soft for the next few months. Global oil prices, too, have been low, and cheaper imports from China will likely keep core inflation soft for a prolonged period,” it noted.

The RBI has lowered H1 FY27 inflation forecast by 50 bp (4.5 per cent previously to 4 per cent now).

“However our forecasts are 50 bp lower than the RBI’s (at 3.5 per cent). If we are correct, and the RBI eventually makes further downward adjustment to inflation, there would be space to ease further, if growth requires it,” said the report.

Three members of Ben & Jerry’s independent board will no longer be eligible to serve in their roles, after the ice cream company introduced a new set of governance practices.

These include a nine-year limit set on board members’ terms. Chair Anuradha Mittal, who earlier said she had no plans to resign under pressure, is among those affected.

The move was criticised by the company’s co-founder Ben Cohen, who called it a “blatant power grab designed to strip the board of legal authority and independence”.

His remarks are the latest in a long-running row between Ben and Jerry’s and its owner over the Cherry Garcia maker’s social activism and the continued independence of its board.

The BBC understands that Ms Mittal will leave the company immediately, while board members Mr Dodson and Ms Henderson will go at the end of this year.

“Anuradha Mittal, Daryn Dodson, and Jennifer Henderson have served this company with integrity and courage. Over many years, they helped the board make bold, often difficult decisions to uphold Ben & Jerry’s social mission,” said Mr Cohen.

Ben & Jerry’s said the move is aimed “to preserve and enhance the brand’s historical social mission and safeguard its essential integrity.”

The Vermont-based firm is now owned by The Magnum Ice Cream Company, after a spinoff from Unilever last week that created the world’s largest standalone ice cream maker.

A spokesperson for Magnum said the firm wanted to build and strengthen Ben & Jerry’s “powerful, non-partisan values-based position in the world”.

But Ben & Jerry’s would be destroyed as a brand if it remains with Magnum, Mr Cohen told the BBC.

Ben & Jerry’s was sold to Unilever in 2000 in a deal which allowed it to retain an independent board and the right to make decisions about its social mission.

Since the sale there have been deepening clashes between the Vermont-based brand and Unilever, with this conflict now inherited by Magnum.

In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s refused to sell its products in areas occupied by Israel, resulting in its Israeli operation being sold by Unilever to a local licensee.

Co-founder Jerry Greenfield left Ben & Jerry’s in September after almost half a century at the firm, deepening a dispute with parent company Unilever.

In a letter shared on social media by Mr Cohen, Mr Greenfield said Ben & Jerry’s had lost its independence after Unilever put a halt to its social activism.