Raw sewage spills into English rivers and seas reach record-breaking highs

Data published today reveals the shocking extent of the dirty water crisis afflicting England’s waterways, with raw sewage discharges into rivers and coastal waters more than doubling to record-breaking levels last year. Raw sewage was dumped into our waterways for 3.6 million hours in 2023, compared with 1.8 million in the previous 12 months.  

These figures confirm that private water companies are being allowed to treat our environment with contempt. A combination of policy failings from successive Conservative governments have allowed this ecological crisis to unfold. They have made dramatic cuts to Environment Agency funding – whose environmental protection budget fell by over 50% between 2009 and 2019 – and allowed water companies to ‘self-report’ their discharges, instead of properly holding them to account. Worryingly, evidence suggests that water firms have been responsible for 10 times more sewage dumping than they have disclosed. 
 
The result is the catastrophic environmental damage we are seeing now. Only 14% of England's rivers are classified as being in a “good” ecological state by the Environment Agency, and without fresh measures that figure will drop to just 6 per cent by 2027. 

I have raised this crisis in the Commons on a number of occasions. Given the appalling pollution of the River Mersey by United Utilities, I recently submitted a Written Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to ask what the Government plans to do to improve the water quality of the Mersey, which in a single year received nearly 1,000 sewage dumps from United Utilities, over the course of 13,373 hours. 

At the time of writing on 26th March 2024, the Government has failed to provide my constituents and I with an answer, despite this being due weeks ago. 

An unanswered Written Parliamentary Question asking the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs about the Government’s plan to improve the water quality of the River Mersey.

The Government’s failure to answer my written question within timeframe is reflective of its wider negligence of the water crisis. As I have highlighted in interventions in the House of Commons, it seems that addressing this issue is not a priority for this Government. 

 Indeed, in 2023 I spoke in support of a Labour motion calling on the Government to set a target for the reduction of sewage discharges, impose financial penalties in relation to sewage discharges and breaches of monitoring requirements, and to carry out an impact assessment of sewage discharges.  

I brought up the appalling pollution of rivers in Stockport by United Utilities and the fact that, in the decades since privatisation, the profits of rule-breaking water companies have soared, whilst bills have risen by 40% and investment in infrastructure has fallen by 15%. You can read a transcript of my contribution to this debate here: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2023-04-25/debates/E4C96653-FAC9-4AB7-A32B-7F5EA2423787/WaterQualitySewageDischarge#contribution-3B5DDBB8-F554-4FE4-997C-500D79858496. 
 
Unfortunately, in response, the Government tabled an amendment to the Opposition’s motion to prevent it from passing and the Government voted this through. 
 
I also spoke about the dirty water emergency and the need for greater regulation of private water companies in a debate in the House of Commons in October 2022. You can read a transcript of this here: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-10-12/debates/97D89432-D1E7-4EED-AB00-DD20E34D860B/SewageDischarges?highlight=sewage#contribution-43C4C984-4471-400B-BAB2-FBEF1834D106. 
 
I proudly support Labour’s plan to clean up the water industry, which includes introducing monitoring of all sewage outlets, a legally binding target to end 90% of sewage discharges by 2030 and automatic fines for discharges.  

A Labour government will also empower Ofwat to ban the payment of bonuses to water bosses until they have cleared up sewage dumping and ensure that water bosses face criminal liability for extreme and persistent lawbreaking. Moreover, any failures to improve will be paid for through the erosion of dividends - not the inflation of customer bills, as the current Government has unfairly allowed. 
 
It was reported recently that the Government plans to end the self-monitoring of sewage outlets by water companies. However, I think the Government must go further than this to stop water companies from treating our coastlines, national parks and areas of outstanding beauty with contempt.