Thank you for contacting me about support for protecting our water.
To protect our water, we have increased the monitoring of storm overflows in England to 100 per cent–more than any other nation in the UK. When Labour left office in 2010only 7 per cent of overflows were monitored. We are cracking down on companies that pollute our rivers, including by introducing unlimited penalties for environmental breaches and giving regulators more powers to fine water companies. We scrapped the cap on civil penalties and broadened their scope to target a much wider range of offences–from breaches of storm overflow permits to the disposal of hazardous waste. Our plan to crack down on water pollution has led to 59successful prosecutions against water companies that pollute illegally, securing fines of over £150 million which will be reinvested into our water.
We are also banning bonuses for bosses of water companies that have committed criminal breaches, with the ban applying to all executive board members and Chief Executives, alongside introducing new powers for Ofwat to clamp down on excessive dividends when environmental performance has been poor, through new powers made possible through the Environment Act.
The action we have taken is delivering results, including completing in March 2024 the £5 billion 25 kilometre long Thames Tideway Tunnel, one of the biggest upgrades to the sewage network in Britain’s history, which will divert 34 of the most polluting storm overflows.
We are launching anew plan to clean up the River Wye, backed by £35 million to protect the long-term health of the river. Our plan will require poultry farms to export manure away from areas where it would cause excess pollution and see the appointment of a new ‘River Champion’ and taskforce to drive change on the Wye.
We are also requiring Ofwat to incentivise water companies to invest to reduce the use of storm overflows. Between 2020 and 2025, water companies will invest £7.1 billion for environmental improvements in England, as well as £56 billion through the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan over 25 years.