The company originated as the Wessex Water Authority, one of ten
regional water authorities established by the
Water Act 1973. These bodies were
privatised in 1989. Wessex Water Services Limited was purchased by American company
Enron in 1998 for $2.4 billion and placed in a newly formed subsidiary,
Azurix. In 2002, following Enron's collapse, Wessex Water was sold to
YTL Power International of Malaysia. The water authority had acquired the assets and duties of a number of public sector and local authority water utilities: • Bristol Avon
River Authority • Somerset River Authority • Avon and Dorset River Authority (except the part of the area of that drains to the River Lim) • Bath Corporation Waterworks • Dorset Water Board • North Wilts Water Board • South Wilts Water Board • Wessex Water Board • West Somerset Water Board • West Wilts Water Board • West Lulworth Water Undertaking Five private statutory water companies were within the water authority's area of operations, and continued to operated: •
Bournemouth and District Water Company •
Bristol Waterworks Company •
Cholderton and District Water Company •
West Hampshire Water Company Bournemouth Water and West Hampshire Water merged in 1994 to form Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water. As of 2026, the operating company Wessex Water Services Limited is owned by Wessex Water Limited, the first in a chain of eight holding companies based in the UK,
Cayman Islands,
Malaysia and ultimately Yeoh Tiong Lay & Sons Family Holdings Ltd in
Jersey.
Predecessors Bath Corporation Waterworks Bath Corporation Waterworks was created by the '''''' (
33 & 34 Vict. c. liii).
Dorset Water Board The '
was constituted by the ' (
SI 1958/1607). The '
was constituted under the (SI 1959/2024). It took over the '.
North Wilts Water Board The '''''' (
SI 1963/63) changed the name of the North West Wilts Water Board to the North Wilts Water Board. The '
was constituted under the ' (
SI 1962/813).
South Wilts Water Board The South Wilts Water Board was constituted by the '''''' (
SI 1966/1425).
Wessex Water Board The Wessex Water Board was constituted by the '''''' (
SI 1963/153).
West Somerset Water Board The West Somerset Water Board was constituted by the '''''' (
SI 1962/2871).
West Wilts Water Board The West Wilts Water Board was constituted under the '
(SI 1959/1965). It took over the Trowbridge, Melksham and District Water Board, the ', and the water undertakings of the urban district councils of Warminster and Westbury, and the rural district councils of Mere and Tisbury, Shaftesbury, and Warminster and Westbury. '
was formed by the (21 & 22 Geo. 5. c. xlvii). It had offices in Silver Street, Trowbridge. The water board took over the existing works of the , formed by the (36 & 37 Vict. c. cxxxiv), replacing the earlier non-statutory ' which had been founded in 1871.
West Lulworth Water Undertaking The West Lulworth Water Undertaking was an unincorporated water undertaking created by the '''''' giving Reginald Joseph Weld of Lulworth Castle the right to supply water; a right that could be transferred to another individual or company. == Operations ==