Worcester MP Robin Walker has explained why he supported crucial legislation to improve the water quality in his constituency. Despite misleading claims to the contrary published recently on Twitter by the Liberal Democrats, Robin joined 291 of his Conservative colleagues who voted for the Environment Bill in Parliament which contains a number of measures to improve water quality.
Sewage overflows are a Victorian infrastructure issue and this is the first Government to take steps to tackle them. The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan will require water companies to deliver their largest ever environmental infrastructure investment - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years.
Ministers will take forward plans to lift the Environment Agency’s maximum civil fine for individual breaches of the rules. Fines for water companies who seriously breach rules will be increased 1,000 fold, from £250,000 to up to £250 million. The Environment Agency has also instructed water companies to install new flow monitors on more than 2,000 wastewater treatment works.
Water companies will be required to take measures such as increasing the capacity of their networks and treating sewage before it is discharged, while massively reducing all discharges. In September 2022, the then Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs asked water company bosses to write to him with their plans to accelerate investment in infrastructure. Water companies are investing £3.1 billion to deliver the 800 storm overflow improvements across England by 2025. Ministers are working with water companies to explore accelerating infrastructure projects.
By 2035, water companies will have to improve all storm overflows discharging into or near every designated bathing water and improve 75 per cent of overflows discharging to high priority nature sites. By 2050, this will apply to all remaining storm overflows covered by our targets, regardless of location. Ministers will review the plan in 2027 to consider where we can go further, taking account of innovation and efficiencies.
Finally, the plan sets out that water companies will be required to publish discharge information in near real time as well as committing to tackling the root causes of the issue by improving surface water drainage. The plan also sets out Ministers’ wider expectations for the water industry, to ensure their infrastructure keeps pace with increasing external pressures, such as urban growth and climate change and to ensure our water supplies remain clean and secure for the future.
Speaking on the parliamentary vote, Robin said:
“The entirely misleading claim that this vote won’t improve water quality completed misses the point that this what the government were proposing was a detailed plan and vision for improving water quality in constituencies like mine. By refusing to back this plan the opposition parties risked worsening the standard of river pollution, not improving it. Tackling storm overflows is a priority and the Government is committed to protecting public health and the environment from storm overflow discharges.
“The parliamentary vote referred to in the Liberal Democrats’ misleading tweet would have placed a legal duty on government to publish a plan by 1 September next year to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows. The amendment was voted down by MPs as a separate, government amendment, ensured we would have a real plan on water pollution reduction, instead of political posturing.
“I have consistently campaigned and voted for measures which will improve water quality. It's only because of increased monitoring of storm overflows, directed by this Government (Lord Benyon in fact in 2013), that we know this is an issue. We're not shying away from it, we're tackling it. Since 2016 we've increased the number of monitors from 6% to almost 90%, with 100% by the end of this year. That's why the numbers of incidents are increasing. Since 2008 our % of bathing waters rated as excellent has increased from 53% to 72%. Poor has reduced from 12% to 3%. We have done more than any other government on the issue of water quality and it is a shame the opposition would rather score cheap points on this matter than engaging constructively.”