I voted in favour of holding water companies to task and categorically reduce the amount of untreated sewage in our waters from storm overflows. We are taking action to protect our environment and improve water quality using a number of new measures.
These new legal requirements will be enforced under the Water Industry Act’s enforcement mechanism. Regulator Ofwat can enforce this new duty on companies. A new enforcement body, the Office for Environmental Protection, will hold Ofwat, the government and other regulators to account.
One of the issues with the Lords’ amendment is that it did not include a workable enforcement mechanism. It would not have allowed Ofwat to financially fine, direct or otherwise force companies to comply with this duty. The government amendment that I supported does do this. This is a vital power if we are to achieve the improvements we all want to see.
The government amendment is part of a broader package in the Environment Bill including new reporting duties on companies and the Environment Agency, long-term planning for investment and live spill alerts. Additional measures on top of the Bill include instructing Ofwat to incentivise significant reductions in overflows, a £3.1 billion investment in overflow reduction and a cross-industry taskforce.
This is the first government to significantly take action on reducing the amount of sewage pumped into our waters. Previous governments of various political colours did very little to address this issue.
Locally, I am aware of the foul flooding in Clyst St Mary, for example. I raised this urgent matter last week with the chief executive of South West Water who immediately arranged a visit to the area by one of their senior engineers. The company have now met with local residents and outlined proposed work to fix the issues. That’s the very least we should expect the water company to do in all cases like this in East Devon.
I am meeting with senior figures of South West Water next week to discuss sewage infrastructure.