Water and energy in Emsworth
Figures last changed 20 October 2026. House prices for Emsworth are on the main Emsworth page.
On this page: How often does sewage spill near Emsworth? · How clean is the water for swimming near Emsworth? · How energy efficient are homes in Emsworth?
How often does sewage spill near Emsworth?
The five monitored storm overflows within 1.5 km of an Emsworth postcode spilled 39 times in 2025, for 372 hours in all, on the water companies' returns to the Environment Agency. The busiest was Thornham wastewater works, which empties into Chichester Harbour via Little Deep: 37 spills and 361 hours across its three outlets. In 2024, the monitored overflows within 1.5 km of an Emsworth postcode spilled 67 times, for 713 hours. The Environment Agency put much of the fall across England down to an unusually dry 2025 after a particularly wet 2024. A storm overflow lets diluted sewage out into a river or the sea when heavy rain overloads the sewers. The counts use the Agency's method, in which the first 12 hours of a spill count as one and each 24 hours after that as another.
Source: Environment Agency storm overflow annual returns (Event Duration Monitoring) · Environment Agency: fewer and shorter storm overflow spills in 2025.
What locals say
- Water quality is talked about every day. Locals see the new oyster beds as a sign the harbour can recover.
How clean is the water for swimming near Emsworth?
Chichester Harbour itself is not a designated bathing water, so the Environment Agency does not test it for swimming or give it a rating. The nearest beach the Agency does rate is Hayling Eastoke, a median 8.0 km from Emsworth's postcodes in a straight line, rated Excellent for 2025; next is Hayling Beachlands Central, 8.2 km away and rated Excellent. A rating covers the last four summers of samples, not any one day, and new ratings come out each November. Storm overflow spills near Emsworth are covered in the sewage answer on this page.
How energy efficient are homes in Emsworth?
About the same as the area as a whole, on their energy performance certificates. Of the 3,745 homes in Emsworth with a certificate on the government register, 49% are rated C or better, against 53% across the Havant council area; the most common rating is D. Mains gas heats 91% of the 3,745 whose main fuel is recorded, and electricity 8%. 55 have a heat pump. Of the 3,691 whose certificate records it, only 6% have no mains gas connection; 54 certificates do not say. 3% have solar panels, and 42 have solar water heating. A certificate is only made when a home is sold, let or built, so homes that rarely change hands are missing, and an old one shows a home as it was then. Each home's latest certificate is used: issued between 2008 and 2026, half of them since 2019.
Source: Energy Performance of Buildings Register (GOV.UK Get energy performance of buildings data).
Figures cover 300 postcodes in Emsworth. How these figures are made.