Swimming sites see slight water quality improvement but dozens fail on pollution

England’s swimming spots have seen a slight improvement in water quality in the latest annual figures but dozens of sites are failing due to pollution.

The latest figures from the Environment Agency show 392 of the country’s 449 designated bathing sites on beaches, lakes and rivers are rated “excellent” or “good” – some 87%.

Overall, 93% or 417 tested sites rated excellent, good or sufficient, a slight rise on 2024, and the number of “excellent” rated sites was up from 289 last year to 297 in 2025.

But 7%, some 32 sites, around England were rated “poor” – failing to meet even the minimum standards for water quality, though the figure is slightly down on the 37 bathing spots that failed last year.

The figures were revealed as reforms to regulations governing bathing waters come into force, including ending rules that automatically removed a bathing water’s designated status after failing for five years in a row – instead looking at water quality issues and trying to work to improve the situation.

Other changes include more flexibility to monitoring dates, with testing adapted to individual sites and when people are using the water.

Further reform looking at new criteria for bathing waters will come into force next May, officials said.

The 2025 results are based on the last four years of testing by the Environment Agency, monitoring for E. coli and intestinal enterococci pollution which are known to put water users’ health at risk.

Officials say a number of factors can affect bathing water quality including storm overflows, agricultural run-off, birds, dogs and other local issues.

Alan Lovell, chairman of the Environment Agency, said: “Bathing water quality in England has improved significantly over recent decades, and this year’s results show the continued impact of strong regulation, investment and partnership working.

“But we know there is more to do, and the new bathing water reforms will strengthen the way these much-loved places are managed.”

Responding to the latest figures, Kirsty Davies, community water quality manager at Surfers Against Sewage said: “The Environment Agency’s classifications are dangerously out of touch with reality.

“A rating of ‘excellent’ is meaningless when sites are tested only once a week, for a couple of months a year, and for only a handful of pollutants.

“We need real-time water quality testing so people know the true risk before getting in the water, all year round.

“The current system, like the entire privatised water industry, refuses to put the health of water users first. It is simply not good enough.”

Just two of the 14 river bathing sites around England rated above “poor” in the latest assessment, with campaigners describing the results as deeply concerning.

Wallingford Beach, River Thames, was rated “sufficient” and Friars Meadow, River Stour in East Anglia, received a “good” rating.

Chief executive of River Action James Wallace said: “Despite being our most protected river sites, the Government’s own data shows that swimming in our inland bathing waters carries significant health risks, underlining the failure of regulators to hold polluters to account.”

A spokesperson for industry body Water UK, which represents water companies, said: “These results show that the quality of English bathing water remains high with 87% achieving a ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ rating.

“This is a stark contrast to the 1990s when less than a third of bathing waters would have met today’s standards.

“Water companies have a plan and are investing a record £12 billion over the next five years to end sewage entering our rivers and seas, with a 50% reduction in spills into bathing waters.”