Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords]

2nd reading
Monday 16th December 2024 Commons Chamber

Second Reading

18:26

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Steve Reed)]

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.

I am delighted to open the Second Reading debate on the Water (Special Measures) Bill—something I hope the whole House will consider to be an early Christmas present. I thank the noble Baroness Hayman of Ullock for her outstanding leadership of the Bill during its passage through the House of Lords, where it quite rightly won support from all sides.

Our rivers, lakes and seas are part of our beautiful British landscape and have been enjoyed by generations. Our countryside is one of the things that makes us proudest to be British, but that pride too often turns to dismay because in too many parts of our country, the local river, lake or beach has been made filthy by pollution. People worry that the places they enjoyed when they were younger are no longer there for their own children or grandchildren. No parent should have to worry that their child might get sick from splashing around in the local sea or river. Our green and pleasant land is no longer quite so pleasant. Our rivers, lakes and seas are being choked by record levels of pollution from untreated sewage, as well as chemicals and run-off from agriculture and highways.

The Bill is not just about the desecration of water running through our countryside. Clean water is essential for every home and business up and down the country. It is one of the essential foundations of our economy, our communities and our national security. We use water to cool power stations, generate electricity, supply our leisure industries and grow the food that feeds us, but our water infrastructure is under increasing strain. It is outdated, inadequate and crumbling. The situation is made worse by our changing climate, with more frequent and severe rainfall, floods and droughts. Water supplies to homes and businesses are disrupted too frequently in some parts of the country. I have spoken to residents in Hastings and Rye who were rightly furious at the inadequate information, lack of alternative supply and little to no compensation when yet another outage happened in their locality.

[Helena Dollimore (Hastings and Rye) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the Secretary of State for the work he and his Department are doing to change the compensation rules so that when these incidents happen, my constituents get higher levels of compensation—something that the Conservatives had 14 years to do, but failed to do. Had they acted in that time, my residents would not be left without compensation for the incidents that have happened in Hastings, Rye and the villages.

[Steve Reed]

I pay huge credit to my hon. Friend. She has been such a champion for her communities in Hastings and Rye, demanding the better water services they deserve.

The failure to invest in our water infrastructure means that the demand for clean drinking water will start to outstrip supply as early as the mid-2030s. Without urgent action, some parts of the country would then face water rationing. The water system is broken but, instead of fixing it, the previous Conservative Government just stood back and watched as our water infrastructure crumbled into disrepair. Instead of strengthening regulation to ensure water companies invested sensibly and at the right time, the Conservatives hobbled the regulator and let water companies divert millions of pounds into wholly unjustified multimillion-pound bonuses and dividend payments.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West) (Lab)]

Does the Secretary of State share my amazement that under the previous Conservative Government organisations had to campaign to have sewage-free rivers, lakes or seas, as if it were some kind of privilege rather than a right for everyone? Does he have any idea of the amount of money that was taken out of the sector, and out of the infrastructure we needed, in profits and bonuses under that Government?

[Steve Reed]

I agree that it is indeed amazing. I know that all of us on the Labour Benches, and perhaps on the Opposition Benches too, share the public’s anger at what happened to our rivers, lakes and seas.

The legacy of 14 years of Conservative Government is the highest level of sewage spills on record, economic growth held back by a lack of water supplies, and now potentially painful bill rises to fix the problems they left behind.

[Jerome Mayhew (Broadland and Fakenham) (Con)]

The Secretary of State says there was the highest level of spills on record. How does he know? When Labour was in power previously, only 7% of sewage outlets were even monitored.

[Steve Reed]

I have to say to the hon. Gentleman that there is very little point in monitoring sewage in the water if all you do is watch the sewage increase and keep on flowing into our rivers, lakes and seas. The Conservatives seem to be satisfied with the failure they presided over. The Labour party will fix the problem that they left behind.

If you find cracks in the wall of your house and ignore it for years, the problem gets worse and the cost of putting it right escalates. That is exactly what the Conservatives did to our water system. They refused to bring in the investment early enough, so ageing infrastructure crumbled even further and the cost to bill payers has rocketed.

[Charlie Maynard (Witney) (LD)]

We are about a month away from Thames Water signing up for another £3 billion of debt. If that happens, 46% of the bills of every customer in that catchment will be spent on interest expenses, and that is without even paying down the £20 billion of debt. How is that helping anyone?

[Steve Reed]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. One of the reasons the Government commissioned a review into governance and regulation is because of the failure of the current system that the previous Government allowed to continue.

I share customers’ anger about the scale of water bill rises they seem likely to face. They are rightly furious at being left to pay the price of Conservative failure. I am grateful that the party opposite has indicated support for the Bill. It is just a shame its support has come so late. In December last year, while they were still in government, I called a vote on introducing a ban on unjustified bonuses for water bosses, but they refused to do it. They could have acted at any point over the past 14 years, but they would not do it. There have been many times in history when Labour has had to clean up the Tories’ mess, but rarely quite so literally as cleaning up the raw sewage polluting our country’s waterways.

[Mr Richard Holden (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

I thank the Secretary of State for giving way. Does he acknowledge, though, that under the previous Labour Government we saw none of the massive capital investment that we are seeing now with the Thames tideway tunnel, which was started under the Conservative Government in 2016? It will be completed next year and is one of the biggest changes to removing sewage from our waterways in history.

[Steve Reed]

The Conservatives had 14 years to fix the system and they chose to do absolutely nothing. They have left it to the incoming Labour Government to clear up the mess they left behind.

The truth is that the water sector needs a complete reset. It needs reform that puts customers and the environment first for once, and a new partnership with the Government to invest for the future and upgrade our water infrastructure.

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

My constituents do not understand why they may be facing a 50% price increase from Thames Water, partly to service a £3 billion loan. The Secretary of State talks about resetting the water industry. Will he consider taking Thames Water into a special administrative regime, so it can be properly reset and the inappropriate debt built up under the previous Government written off to the benefit of taxpayers and consumers?

[Steve Reed]

There is a process by which any company would go into administration. That situation has not yet arisen with any company. The Government are, of course, closely monitoring the situation with Thames Water, but as things stand the company remains viable and I reassure consumers in that area that there is no threat, and would be no threat, to water supply in any circumstance.

The Government have a three-stage plan to deliver change and bring in the biggest ever investment in our water sector. That started with the initial reforms I announced in the week following the general election. It continues with the Bill before the House today. It will be completed with the water commission, led by Sir Jon Cunliffe, and further legislation that will follow on from that.

In my first week as Environment Secretary, I met water company chief executives and announced a set of immediate reforms to start the process of change. Money earmarked for investment to upgrade water infrastructure will now be ringfenced, so it cannot be diverted for other purposes, including paying bonuses or dividends. If it is not spent on what it was intended for, it will be refunded back to customers as discounts on their bills. Water companies agreed to formally change their company objectives to place customers and the environment at the heart of everything they do. They will set up powerful new customer panels to scrutinise key decisions. Customers who face frequent water outages—like the constituents my hon. Friend the Member for Hastings and Rye (Helena Dollimore) talked about—or contaminated tap water, as residents and businesses experienced in Brixham in Devon, will now receive more generous compensation and they will get it faster.

We promised in our manifesto to put water companies under special measures to clean up our water. The core provisions of the Bill do precisely that by strengthening the powers of the regulators and holding water companies to account for poor performance.

[Gareth Snell (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Secretary of State rightly talks about the role that regulators have to play, whether that is Ofwat or the Environment Agency. While the water companies were getting away with what they were doing, the Conservative party took huge amounts of money out of the EA. Independent figures from Unchecked UK suggest an 88% reduction in enforcement activities, and that a 50% reduction in the environmental protection budget led to a 60% reduction in activity. Will he set out more on how regulators will be key to clearing up our water industry?

[Steve Reed]

Absolutely. My hon. Friend makes some extremely important points. In my speech, I will be coming on to how we intend to ensure the regulator not only has additional powers but additional resources to enforce those powers.

[Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes) (Lab)]

On compensation, sewage discharges have a massive impact on the local economy in places like Cleethorpes in my constituency, which relies on holidaymakers to support our tourist and hospitality economy. Will the compensation extend to businesses, or will those companies which are put under special measures be required to support other local businesses that are hampered as a result of sewage discharges?

[Steve Reed]

That is an important point. Polluted water does not just damage people’s health; it damages the health of local economies as well, and the compensation will extend to businesses in a way that it previously did not.

The Bill gives Ofwat legal powers to ban bonuses if water company executives fail to meet high standards. It will introduce stricter penalties, including imprisonment, when senior executives in water companies obstruct investigations by environmental regulators, and it includes provisions to allow automatic and severe fines to be imposed for wrongdoing. When increased costs are a result of penalties being issued by the regulators, for instance under the new automatic penalties regime, penalties will come out of water company profits and not from customers.

[Ms Polly Billington (East Thanet) (Lab)]

In evidence given to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Ofwat confirmed that had the measures to ban bonuses been in place earlier, the boss of Southern Water—which covers my constituency—would not have received his most recent bonus. It was Tory inaction that allowed it.

[Steve Reed]

My hon. Friend is a doughty campaigner for cleaner water for her constituents, and she is quite right. If millions of pounds had not been diverted unnecessarily and unfairly into bonuses, that money could have been invested in improving the broken water infrastructure.

The Bill will go further by expanding the cost recovery powers for the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and the Drinking Water Inspectorate. That means that water companies will bear the cost of enforcement activities, in line with the “polluter pays” principle, while also giving regulators the extra resources needed to hold water companies properly to account.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

As the Bill seeks to strengthen the regulation of our water companies, is this not an opportunity to finally regulate the existence of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in our water? Those highly toxic chemicals can be linked to serious health conditions. Scotland, the European Union and United States have put guidance on a legal footing. Why is the Secretary of State not using this opportunity to regulate the presence of PFAS in our drinking water, and to protect our health and that of our children?

[Steve Reed]

I recognise the point that the hon. Lady is making, and the Water Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice (Emma Hardy), will be pleased to meet her to discuss it further.

This Government will not let water companies get away with abuses that the last Government did nothing to stop. The Bill will open up the sector to greater scrutiny by ensuring that there is consistency and transparency in the reporting of pollution. It requires water companies to report in near real time on discharges from emergency overflows which at are present largely unmonitored. It requires water companies to consider the use of nature-based solutions such as reed beds, wetlands and tree planting when they develop their drainage and wastewater management plans. That will ensure that they consider all possible opportunities to use sustainable approaches that benefit the environment as well as managing water more effectively.

[Ben Coleman (Chelsea and Fulham) (Lab)]

I am extremely encouraged by what the Secretary of State is saying. In my constituency—I have been following this for well over two years—the amount of sewage discharge has been absolutely contemptible. In 2023 alone, Thames Water pumped sewage into the river 116 times, for 990 hours, even when it was not raining. I am heartened to hear that, unlike the last Government, our Government intend to take serious measures to ensure that bosses are forced to clear up the mess that they create, and stop them doing it. Can the Secretary of State reassure me that, unlike the last Government, he will ensure that the regulators use the powers they are given and do not behave as feebly as they have for the past 14 years?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. Before the Secretary of State responds, may I point out that interventions must be short? More than 60 Back Benchers want to speak in the debate.

[Steve Reed]

My hon. Friend is right to make that point. We are not just giving the regulators more teeth; we are also giving them more resources to ensure that they can carry out enforcement against those responsible for wrongdoing.

The Bill requires Ofwat to consider how it can contribute to achieving targets set under the Environment Act 2021 and the Climate Change Act 2008 when carrying out its functions. Together, these measures will ensure that water companies serve customers and the environment far better in future.

[Amanda Martin (Portsmouth North) (Lab)]

Does the Secretary of State agree with me, and with my constituents, that sewage pumped 193 times for 404 hours, in the context of £41 million in bonuses, produces angry residents, un-swimmable seas and potential bill rises—in short, a real faeces show—and does he agree that it cannot happen again?

[Steve Reed]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for explaining why her constituents are so angry about the situation, and why the Bill is so necessary as we start to turn the water industry around so that it serves customers and the environment better than it did previously.

I want to reassure the House that although water is a devolved matter, my Department has engaged with the devolved Governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland throughout the development of the Bill. All its provisions will apply to both England and Wales, and we will continue to work closely with our Welsh counterparts as it progresses.

[Kit Malthouse (North West Hampshire) (Con)]

rose—

[Steve Reed]

I hope that Members will allow me to make some progress. I am worried about how much time I am taking, given that so many other Members want to contribute to the debate.

The Bill is just one part of the Government’s ambitious and long-term approach to fundamentally transforming the water sector. Together with the Welsh Government, I have commissioned Sir Jon Cunliffe, the distinguished former deputy governor of the Bank of England, to lead an independent commission on the future of the water industry. It will be the most comprehensive review of the industry since its privatisation 35 years ago.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Steve Reed]

I will make some progress, if Members do not mind.

The commission will review regulation and governance from the bottom up to ensure that we have a robust framework that can attract the significant investment that is needed to clean up our waterways, while guaranteeing future water supplies, restoring public confidence and promoting economic growth. Sir Jon will be supported by an advisory group covering areas including the environment, public health, engineering, customers, investors and economics. The commission will seek advice from stakeholder groups, including environmental campaigners, consumer champions, water companies, regulators and the public, and it will make recommendations by June 2025. This is our opportunity to completely reset the water industry so that it is fit for the future and can finally move on from the failures of the past.

I want to thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hull West and Haltemprice, who will steer the Bill through this House. I know that she will lead this work with the expertise and passion for which she is well known across the House. No one is better suited to lead our Department’s first piece of primary legislation under the new Government.

This Bill is our chance to right the wrongs that have so angered members of the public up and down the country. Water pollution is not inevitable and it is not acceptable.

Our children and grandchildren deserve to make the same wonderful memories that we did, splashing about in clean rivers, swimming in the sea or playing on the shores of our beautiful lakes, without fear of getting sick. It is time to clean up our water once and for all, and the Bill is an important step in making that happen. Let us seize the opportunity to give this country back the clean rivers, lakes and seas that are our shared birthright.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

18:48

[Victoria Atkins (Louth and Horncastle) (Con)]

I welcome the opportunity to debate the vital issue of water and how this Bill may be improved. The Secretary of State will be relieved to hear that I intend to focus on water quality tonight, rather than his selling of farmers, fishermen and family businesses down the river—we dealt with that this afternoon at the London Palladium summit.

Across the House, we agree that there are fundamental problems facing the water and sewerage industry that span decades. While we enjoy high-quality drinking water across the UK, there are, sadly, some streams, rivers and beaches where sewage is discharged with disgusting results, chiefly because our Victorian-era sewerage system cannot cope with a larger population and increasingly volatile weather. We Conservatives recognised that when we entered government in 2010 and started the enormous and decades-long task of turning things around.

[Gareth Snell]

And how is that going?

[Victoria Atkins]

I will come on that, and the hon. Gentleman will regret asking that question.

I am going to set out our record on water, because it is important that this Government act on the facts rather than believing their own rhetoric—as was demonstrated, sadly, by the shameful betrayal of farming and family businesses in Labour’s Budget of broken promises.

Since 2010, the number of designated bathing waters has increased. We have seen a significant improvement in water quality ratings, with more waters rated as “excellent” or “good”, and an increase in blue flag beaches. I gently point out that England performs better than other parts of the UK when it comes to leaks, drinking water quality and bathing water quality. I understand why Labour Members—including the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West (Chi Onwurah), who is no longer in her place—have raised the issue of dividends, but it is an inconvenient fact that over 65% of dividends were paid out during the New Labour Government era, with a decline over the 14 years that we were in government.

There is more to be done, which is precisely why we want to help the Government to improve their piece of legislation. It is also why the work of the last decade must be seen as part of this giant infrastructure project. We were the first Government in history to set out that storm overflows must be reduced. To do that, storm overflows had to be monitored and measured. I have to say that I was surprised that the Secretary of State was so dismissive of the need to monitor. As a Home Office Minister, I was painfully aware that we needed to monitor, for example, reports of sexual violence against women, because once it is measured, we can manage it.

It is surprising that the Secretary of State does not appear to think that monitoring storm overflows matters. The reason why is that the previous Labour Government monitored just 7% of storm overflows in 2010. He cannot say that there are more overflows than ever before, because the previous Labour Government did not measure them. The fact that we increased monitoring to 100% of storm overflows means that we know the frequency and have been able to build a body of work on top of that. [Interruption.] He asks what we have done as a result, and I am very happy to help him with that. The data has empowered enraged residents to demand that their local streams, rivers and beaches be cleaned up. It is a critical part of the decades-long work on our water systems that is required, but we were not content with maximising monitoring. The data must be used—

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Victoria Atkins]

I will give way in a moment.

The data must be used to improve water quality, which is why our landmark Environment Act 2021 gave stronger powers to regulators and imposed stricter demands for tackling pollution. We set legally binding targets to improve water quality and availability, and to reduce nutrient pollution. We rolled out catchment-sensitive farming to 100% of farms in England. Presumably, the Labour Government support the Environment Act 2021, because they seem to be replicating some of it in this Bill.

We recognised that the ageing water infrastructure needs rebuilding. The Conservative Government stepped up the requirements for investment, including investment from water companies in storm overflow improvements and nationally significant infrastructure projects, such as the Thames tideway tunnel super-sewer—the Secretary of State need only walk out the back of this House to see that sewer. He is now taking credit for the last Government’s work and is not happy to accept that.

[Ben Coleman]

May I suggest that if the right hon. Lady wishes to see the situation in the Thames, she need only go three bridges downstream to my constituency of Chelsea and Fulham, where the people who live in the Chelsea Reach houseboats regularly send me photos of the dirt and sewage coming down the river after 14 years of absolute failure to regulate the industry?

[Victoria Atkins]

I imagine the hon. Gentleman presents himself as a fair-minded individual to his constituents. When the Thames tideway super-sewer is open and functioning, presumably he will say to his constituents that they will see a vast improvement in the terrible situation that he has just described, thanks to the previous Government securing investment in order to make it possible.

[Clive Lewis (Norwich South) (Lab)]

Listening to the right hon. Lady and the excuses that the previous Government have made for what they did, it seems that what you were doing was equivalent to polishing one of the many turds that you will find in the Thames. Perhaps you would like to listen to your main electoral competitor, Reform UK, which actually has a policy for public ownership—I was quite surprised to find that out myself. Perhaps you think that that could solve many of the problems in UK waters.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. One solution would be not using the word “you”. As an experienced Member, he should know much better than that.

[Victoria Atkins]

Particularly as the hon. Gentleman was talking about effluent, which is not respectful. I know that he is capable of much greater advocacy than that. I am afraid that I will take no lessons from the Reform party, as he encourages, although I understand that Labour may face some threats from that party in the Welsh Senedd elections—but I digress.

We made it clear that the water industry must prioritise action to improve the environment, including protecting priority habitats such as chalk streams. I have the good fortune to have chalk streams in my constituency; they have carved their way through Lincolnshire’s wolds for the last 10,000 years. The dedicated chalk streams fund, announced by the Conservatives in 2022, has been put to good use in Lincolnshire. Will the Minister for Water and Flooding, whom I welcome to her place, confirm in her wind-up that the protection schemes for chalk streams will continue?

Following the pandemic, we launched our plan for water, which integrates water and food planning, tackles all sources of pollution and gives the Environment Agency the power to issue bigger penalties to water companies. We banned microbeads in rinse-off personal care products, reduced plastic bag usage by 95% and banned wet wipes containing plastic, which is a huge source of water pollution.

I understand why the Labour Government highlight the bonuses that water company bosses have received. Again, I gently point out to the Secretary of State—perhaps he has not done his homework—that the Environment Act 2021, which his Back Benchers do not seem to have read, gave regulators the power to ban water bosses from receiving bonuses if companies have committed serious criminal breaches. [Interruption.] Labour Members ask whether the regulators used it. They are independent, and it is for the regulators to justify why they have not used that power under the legislation that is available.

[Helena Dollimore]

Will the right hon. Lady give way?

[Victoria Atkins]

I will do in a moment—I am not like the Secretary of State.

The truth is that Labour Members do not like hearing the facts. We brought forward measures to ensure that companies that pollute the environment can be hit with unlimited financial penalties. We also set up the water restoration fund, meaning that any fines or penalties levelled at water companies were ringfenced to support projects that improve the environment and keep pressure off bills, rather than being returned to the Treasury. The fact that Ministers appear to have stalled the fund reveals how little this Government understand the countryside or care about it. Indeed, it looks like they have held back £168 million in fines that were due to be paid into the fund.

Why on earth would this Labour Government not want polluters to pay? Why are they content for fines of many millions of pounds to be paid into the Treasury slush fund, rather than local environmental projects that have been damaged by storm overflows? Does the Treasury really need that money, or is it perhaps paying for the Deputy Prime Minister’s new, flash apartment? My colleagues and I will work to ensure that the water restoration fund is reinstated and that money goes to local environment projects to protect local environments, as was intended.

Most of the measures in this Bill, including monitoring, blocking bonuses and significant fines, were in fact brought it by the Conservative Government. Indeed, primary legislation is not necessary to put most of these measures into practice.

[Josh Fenton-Glynn (Calder Valley) (Lab)]

I am pleased to hear the right hon. Lady championing her party’s record on the environment. Her colleagues are somewhat less confident, given that only 12.5% of the parliamentary Conservative party have bothered to show up to the debate. Is that because they are ashamed or because they do not have the same confidence as she does in their record on the environment and pollution?

[Victoria Atkins]

No, it is because they know that we have already put most of these powers into place and that this is a PR exercise. None the less, it is an important topic, which is why we will ensure that the Government improve the Bill—there is much improvement to be done—and work constructively across the House to ensure that that happens. We understand that the hon. Gentleman’s constituents in Calder Valley want clean water as much as my residents in Lincolnshire do.

In Committee and beyond, we will be working to improve this Bill, and I want to join the Secretary of State in thanking the noble Lords in the other place for already starting this task of improvement. In particular, I congratulate Lord Cromwell, who amended the Bill to improve accountability on debt levels and the financial structuring of water companies. Will the Minister please confirm that the Government will keep those amendments in the Bill?

[Mr Holden]

On a fairly small technical point, the hon. Member for Calder Valley (Josh Fenton-Glynn) made the point that 12.5% of Conservative Members are here. Perhaps he should look at the statistics, because only 11% of Labour Members are here. I know that the last Labour Government were not interested in monitoring the outflows, but they could at least monitor their own Members.

[Victoria Atkins]

I thank my right hon. Friend. That shows that we on this side can count, unlike the cockeyed accounting of the Chancellor and her Ministers.

In Committee and beyond, the Conservatives will look to deliver an effective limit on water company borrowing. We will boost the way that nature-based solutions can be used in drainage and sewerage management plans, as well as in water storage and tackling pollution. We will also seek to bring back the water restoration fund as an absolute priority.

[Rachel Taylor (North Warwickshire and Bedworth) (Lab)]

Does the right hon. Member think it is acceptable that 90-year-old residents in Fillongley in my constituency go out in their wellington boots at night to deal with flooding in their village because her Government did not invest in local solutions for the last 14 years?

[Victoria Atkins]

Of course the constituents’ experience that the hon. Lady has described is not acceptable. I do not think anyone would say that it was. Sometimes the public are switched off by this back and forth, because the idea that anyone would be content with the experience that she has described is for the birds. The difference that we draw on—I hope we will have a much more constructive conversation about water than this—is that the investment that was made by the last Government in flooding has had many benefits across the country but, as I acknowledged at the beginning of my speech, there is more to be done. That is why we will support the Bill, but we will be looking to improve it.

I just want to make sure that the Minister got the point that I was making. The amendment that came from the Lords to improve accountability on debt levels and on the financial structuring of water companies is a critical one, and I very much hope that the Government will address this and set out their commitment to keep that amendment that the noble Lords saw fit to put in the Bill.

As I say, in Committee and beyond, the Conservatives will look to deliver effective and constructive amendments to this Bill, but I put down this marker. It is surprising—and, I have to say, disappointing—that the Government have failed to grasp that water companies and sewage are just two elements in managing, maintaining and improving our waterways and water quality. Where are the plans for investment in infrastructure? Where are the plans for nature-based solutions? Where are the plans for the roles of other businesses? As we face the likelihood of increased bills being announced this week, what guarantees and reassurances can the Government give to bill payers? And what plans do the Government have to separate foul water and surface water systems? That is a critical infrastructure question that I hope we will get some answers to in the coming weeks. How will the Government encourage investment, particularly given the depressive effects on growth that this Chancellor and her Budget are having on the economy?

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the shadow Minister for her words of wisdom in the Chamber tonight. Does she share my concern over the excessive bonuses that the chief executives of these businesses get? Does she know how much that angers and annoys the ordinary person in the street, who wants to know why somebody is getting a six-figure sum for not doing their job right while they are just trying to make ends meet?

[Victoria Atkins]

Of course we understand that, and it is why we put the powers into the Environment Act 2021 that I am sure the hon. Gentleman and many others voted to support. I hope we can move away from this back and forth and understand the facts as they are and how we can improve on them, because that is what we all want.

We all care about the quality of our water. Let us not pretend or suggest otherwise. I would not suggest that Labour Members do not care about the quality of water, and I do not understand why they think we do not care about the quality of the water that we and our constituents use, drink and swim in—[Interruption.] It is interesting—the left do not like it when we point out that they use motivations rather than the facts. This is why the Conservatives set in train the measures needed to make a meaningful and long-term difference to water quality in this country. That task is not yet finished, and we will support thoughtful, sensible and cost-effective measures to further improve water quality.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

This is a heavily oversubscribed debate and I want to get as many Back Benchers in as I can, so Back-Bench speeches will be limited to a hard stop at four minutes. I call Matt Rodda, who is going to show us how it is done beautifully—

[Mr Holden]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Mr. Holden, is this a crucial point of order related to the business taking place right now?

[Mr Holden]

Yes, Madam Deputy Speaker. The Secretary of State had the opportunity today to make a declaration of interest, in having had football tickets worth £1,800 donated to him by Hutchison 3G UK Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings, which also owns three quarters of Northumbrian Water. I just wonder whether he would like to make a quick declaration on the record.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I am not sure that it is a matter for the Chair to regulate Members’ declarations of interest. It is on public record, which is why the hon. Gentleman has been able to make that point on the Floor of the House, and no doubt it has been noted. Now, Mr. Rodda, you have four minutes. The floor is yours.

19:07

[Matt Rodda (Reading Central) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to speak in tonight’s debate, and I start by making my own declaration of interests, in that I have family members who work in hydrology and in environmental science, which is closely related to the water industry.

In support of the Bill, I want to make three points about the real experience of my constituents with water pollution, with water supply issues—which are very serious—and on the need for serious action to tackle those issues. I am lucky to represent Reading. It is a wonderful town at the confluence of two major rivers: the River Thames, one of the country’s biggest rivers, and the Kennet, a beautiful tributary of the Thames. It is a chalk stream that starts in the north Berkshire downs and flows into the River Thames at Reading.

[Olivia Bailey (Reading West and Mid Berkshire) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend’s constituency neighbours my constituency of Reading West and Mid Berkshire. In addition to the beautiful chalk stream, the Kennet, I also have the beautiful River Pang, which has unfortunately been decimated by the sewage outflows under the previous Government, with children walking to school through raw sewage in the streets—an absolute disgrace. Does he agree that the measures in this Bill will get tough on failing water companies such as Thames Water?

[Matt Rodda]

I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend. That is exactly the problem, and I want to help Members to picture its seriousness.

In 2023, Foudry brook, which flows into the Kennet, was badly polluted. Next to well-established willow trees on the banks of that small river, which flows through local fields and past people’s terraced houses into Reading, I saw with my own eyes putrid green water—the stench was unbelievable—caused by a sewage outfall in Hampshire that flowed into Foudry brook and ultimately into the Kennet, then into the main River Thames. That is the sort of disgusting pollution that we are concerned about, which is why I am so pleased with the Government’s action on this important matter. It is also important to local residents who live next to rivers, who walk near rivers, who use canoes or boats in rivers, or who fish in rivers. Thousands of local residents in my area, across our county and in other similar parts of England, as well as those living near lakes and seas, are affected by this issue.

I have seen other appalling instances of pollution. In another case, I was walking with my wife next to the Thames in the middle of winter. It was a beautiful scene and, looking across the river, we could see trees, fields and hillsides in the distance. There was a heron on the water. Sadly, this view was blighted by the sight of dark brown-cream foam frothing on the river and gathering next to an island—the foam was caused by nitrate pollution from sewage.

This was in the River Thames, in a beautiful area just outside Reading, and it is the sort of disgusting pollution that we and our constituents are all having to face. That is why this Bill is so important, and I hope we can all agree to support it because such appalling pollution simply should not be taking place in England, or in any part of the United Kingdom.

I realise that time is pressing, but the measures in this Bill will also tackle some very serious issues with water supply. I have residents who had their water cut off for two days, nearly a year ago, and still have not been compensated. This affected hundreds of people living in east Reading, in the Newtown area near Reading University and the Royal Berkshire hospital. They were unable to shower or cook, and they had multiple other problems caused by the lack of water supply. I endorse the Government’s measures to toughen up the response to such failures of service.

We recently had another incident where residents were expected to drive 9 miles to Henley-on-Thames to collect water, which is simply unacceptable. Residents, including vulnerable residents, had to drive for a 45 or 50-minute round trip to collect bottled water from a Tesco supermarket on the outskirts of Henley, yet there were multiple sites in the north part of Reading from where emergency water supplies could have been delivered.

Both examples show why this important legislation is needed. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak tonight, and I look forward to hearing more from my hon. Friends.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

19:12

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

It is a great privilege to speak on this Bill on behalf of my party, and a still greater privilege, I dare say, to speak as the Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale, which includes Windermere, Ullswater, Coniston Water, Haweswater, Rydal Water, Grasmere, Elterwater, Esthwaitewater, Brotherswater, the River Kent, the River Eden and much of Morecambe bay. We are a stunningly beautiful part of the country, and also one of the wettest. For us, water is unavoidable and precious. It is precious to our biodiversity, our heritage and our tourism economy.

As the House may have noticed, the Liberal Democrats chose to make water the centrepiece of our election campaign. So much so that my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey) spent much of the campaign in the stuff. We continue to champion a radical restructuring of our water industry, because water is the most vital of resources and because we cannot allow a continuation of the poor regulation, wanton pollution and abuse of power that became hallmarks of the water industry under the Conservative Government.

There is much to welcome in this Bill, including criminal liability for chief executives who are responsible for severe environmental failure—a measure that I remind colleagues was proposed by the Liberal Democrats before the last election, and that Labour refused to support at the time because it believed the measure to be unnecessary. We are pleased that Labour now agrees with us.

We are also encouraged by the proposals to increase some of Ofwat’s powers, to introduce a fit-and-proper-person test for chief executives, to institute an automatic fining system that makes sense, to install real-time monitors, and to create greater data transparency. All these measures are welcome, and they will all help, but they do not yet amount to the radical structural transformation that is so obviously needed.

The recent announcement of Sir Jon Cunliffe’s review is welcome, but it is also kind of frustrating. It suggests that the Government might well be up for a more radical change, just not yet. The review will not conclude until next summer, of course, after which many people, including in the Treasury, will need to go over its proposals before it hopefully makes it into a King’s Speech, running the risk that the more ambitious part 2 might not find its way on to the legislative timetable in this Parliament.

Of course, fixing the entire water industry and sewerage system is not an overnight job, but this feels like an especially ponderous way to solve such an urgent and pressing issue.

[Dave Robertson (Lichfield) (Lab)]

The hon. Gentleman talks about the perils of acting too slowly, but given that a Liberal Democrat was in charge of the water industry when it was privatised, does he not think that we might all be paying the price for the error of acting too quickly in that instance?

[Tim Farron]

Unless, to my absolute surprise, the Liberal Democrats were in power in the 1980s and early 1990s, I do not think that could have been the case. I was at university with the hon. Member for Carlisle (Ms Minns) when it happened, and neither of us was in government at the time.

The British people rightly believe that they voted for a far more ambitious plan than the one in the Bill, and they believe that they voted for it to be delivered urgently. The biggest mistake that Labour Governments tend to make is not being ambitious enough, presumably under the impression that they will be in power for longer than they perhaps might be, so my friendly advice to the Government is to seize the day and seize the moment. The millions who voted Liberal Democrat at the election absolutely did vote for ambitious and urgent change.

[Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the water companies need to be regulated, to protect not profits but the environment? Does he also believe that bathing waters, like the wonderful Tone bathing water in which I was swimming the day before yesterday, should not automatically be de-designated?

[Tim Farron]

I commend my hon. Friend for his swimming activities, and I agree with him. The regulatory framework should be used to improve our waterways, not to strip them of their vital designations. We take the view that it is our job to campaign with energy and passion for a radical clean-up. We are determined to keep our word to the voters by fighting for that action.

I will take a quick moment to say something that I feel is most important. The people who work on the frontline in our water industry, and those who work for the Environment Agency and Ofwat, deserve our thanks and admiration—yet, because of the failings of the system, they end up taking the blame that ought to land here in this place. The legions of people running our water system do a vital job, so I want us to get the tone of this debate right. We can be rightly outraged about how our water industry is allowed to operate, and at the same time be hugely grateful to those who, despite the system, do outstanding work to serve our communities. I want those people to know, and to hear, that we really value them. They are a blessing to us. They are not the problem; the system is. We are determined to fight for a better system for all those people to work in.

[Adam Jogee (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)]

In a previous life, I drafted many of the amendments to the Environment Act 2021. I am sorry that the shadow Secretary of State would not let me intervene on her, and I am further sorry that she and most of her colleagues voted against every single one of those amendments. The hon. Gentleman was very kind and wisely voted for them. Although Conservative Members now talk about regulation, all the previous Government did was cut the regulator off at its knees, and we are now dealing with the consequences of their inaction and decisions.

[Tim Farron]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his service in a previous life, as well as in this one. He makes a very important point, to which I will turn in a moment. There is no point having great regulatory powers if we do not have a regulator with the resources to do the job that it needs to do. Nevertheless, regulation could be made better.

Water industry regulation is split between the Environment Agency and Ofwat, and that plainly does not work. We have two inadequately resourced regulators, with inadequate powers, being played off against each other by very powerful water companies that are far better resourced and able to run rings around the very good, but very harassed people whose job it is to hold them to account. I welcome the concession made in the Bill requiring Ofwat to contribute towards meeting the targets of the Environment Act 2021 and the Climate Change Act 2008. That is a step in the right direction because I believe it will be the first time that Ofwat will have proper environmental obligations, alongside its business obligations.

We have received promises, as the Secretary of State set out from the Dispatch Box earlier, that this Government will strengthen Ofwat’s powers in ways that we do not see on the face of the Bill. For instance, Liberal Democrat peers asked the Minister to confirm that the Government would ban water company bosses getting bonuses when their company had had a major category 1 or category 2 sewage incident the year before, and the Minister in the other place said:

“These are the type of circumstances in which it would be highly inappropriate for a bonus to be awarded.”—[Official Report, House of Lords, 20 November 2024; Vol. 841, c. 247.]

That is very welcome, but it is not on the face of the Bill.

I pay tribute to my Liberal Democrat colleagues in the other place, who forensically engaged with the Bill to make it much better. I also pay tribute to the collegiate and constructive manner in which the Minister, Baroness Hayman, worked with them. To be clear, though, the Liberal Democrats would go even further and create a unified and much more powerful regulator, the clean water authority, absorbing the regulatory powers of Ofwat and the Environment Agency, but with many additional powers, including revoking the licence of poorly performing water companies swiftly, forcing water companies to publish the full scale of their sewage spills, reforming water companies to put local environmental experts on their boards, and putting robust, legally binding targets on sewage discharges.

On the issue of discharges, we welcome the change to require data from emergency overflows to be published within an hour of a discharge. That will require companies to monitor all emergency sewage overflows and to ensure that data is reported to the Environment Agency within the hour. To pursue the point made by the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee), my concern is that the Environment Agency is already massively overwhelmed. In my constituency, I see good people working very hard, but with Coniston, Windermere, the River Eden and the River Kent competing for time, attention and resource, as well as the ongoing work of building flood defences in Kendal, it is hard for them to be able to focus.

[Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)]

The hon. Gentleman talks about the Environment Agency being under-powered and under-resourced. With rivers like the River Wharfe, it has clearly failed to address illegal discharges and to enforce the law. Does he, like me, welcome the fact that the Bill will introduce more support for enforcement by allowing the Environment Agency to recover the cost of any enforcement from the offending water companies?

[Tim Farron]

Yes, to a degree. I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention; it is very welcome, as is the investment that is promised and the way in which it will be provided, but—and I am happy to be put right on this—I think the figure used by the Government is an additional 500 members of staff for the Environment Agency. That is one per constituency in England and Wales. That will not make a noticeable difference. In practice, the Bill could well permit a continuation of the current situation, where water companies will be setting and marking their own homework, with an Environment Agency without the capacity to even manage its current workload, let alone the new duties the Bill will give it to monitor masses of important overflow data. The regulator must be much better funded to do that well. Even then, the regulation rules must be watertight for the Environment Agency to ensure that the water companies cannot pick and choose which information they release or retain.

The Minister indicated that the data will be made publicly available and easy to access. I look forward to hearing more detail about how that will be done. That could be a positive move, allowing citizen scientists and campaign groups—such as the wonderful Clean River Kent Campaign group, the Eden Rivers Trust, the South Cumbria Rivers Trust and the Save Windermere campaign, as well as many others from other communities —to be able to hold the water companies to account to a greater degree. After all, knowledge is power. We are keen to encourage the Government to move forward with that.

We would also like to see water companies publish the volume and concentration of discharge from all emergency overflows, not just their duration and frequency. Will the Minister consider including that duty? And should we really have water companies installing and maintaining their own monitoring equipment? We believe that the Environment Agency or its successor should be doing that, with the full cost of that work paid for by the water companies.

The Bill makes almost no attempt to address the structure of finances and ownership of the water industry. The Minister has indicated that the Bill will seek to change the culture of the industry, which would be welcome, but cultural change will only come with a change to the reckless profiteering that has been the norm. As right hon. and hon. Members on the Conservative Benches have said, Lord Cromwell in the other place tabled an amendment requiring annual updates from water companies on any financial restructuring that they have done or plan to do. It cannot go unacknowledged that financial stability and good governance seriously affect the environmental standards that any water company is able to reach. I am grateful to my hon. Friends the Members for Witney (Charlie Maynard) and for Bicester and Woodstock (Calum Miller) who made those points in relation to Thames Water.

I am grateful to my noble Friend Baroness Bakewell for tabling a Liberal Democrat amendment to the Bill in the Lords to create special status, with special protections, for Windermere as an exemplar of the standards we will expect in our waterways across the whole country. The Campaign for National Parks’ health check report, which was released earlier this year, found that only five out of the 880 bodies of water in the national parks of England and Wales met the highest ecological standards, and that every single one was polluted to some degree. Windermere itself received 140 million litres of pollution in the last two years. Amendments tabled in the Lords, which we will table here also, will seek to tackle that. Water industry leaders must be forced to take responsibility for the care of these world class lakes and waterways, and our amendments to the Bill would ensure that they do so.

Although the privatisation of the water industry was an incredibly bad decision and definitely did not happen on our watch, I am not convinced that renationalisation would be necessary or a good use of public money. I fear it would mean that we would have to buy the assets back, putting taxpayers’ money into the pockets of those who have already made so much money out of them, without a single penny of that money going into improving infrastructure. Instead, it seems wiser to move away from the current model and to ensure that water companies should be community benefit corporations, so that all revenue goes into keeping environmental standards higher and solving the long-term problems of our networks. None of our constituents should have to pay for company debt. These were business decisions, taken by those who took risks to make money, rather than to invest in our sewage systems; they should bear the consequences of those risks.

The current regulatory framework seems to leave water companies immune from the highest penalties, despite their repeated failure to meet their basic obligation to prevent sewage from being dumped in our lakes, rivers and coastal areas. The current rules mean that, under special administration procedures, to remove a water company’s licence to operator would mean the regulator serving a 25-year notice on them. That is why we are disappointed that the Bill does not go as far as we want, or as far as so many water campaigners have asked for it to go.

The Cunliffe review gives us hope of a more radical set of proposals to come later in this Parliament, but our communities are impatient for change—a change more radical than this Government are so far willing to offer us. Although we see nothing in the Bill to disagree with and much in it to commend, we are left frustrated that any radical transformation will be at best delayed until a second instalment, after Sir Jon Cunliffe’s review.

[Robin Swann (South Antrim) (UUP)]

The hon. Gentleman references Sir Jon Cunliffe, and I thank the Secretary of State for commissioning the review. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that Sir Jon’s review should look across the United Kingdom, because Northern Ireland Water is both a Government-owned company and a non-departmental public body and I assure the House that the water quality in Northern Ireland, especially in Lough Neagh, is nothing to be celebrated either. Should not Sir Jon Cunliffe’s review look at how all bodies regulate their water systems, so they serve the public?

[Tim Farron]

I think two things. I respect the devolution settlement and think it is important that we do not overstep what we are called to do today. I also, however, agree that the waterways of all corners of our United Kingdom are precious and must be protected. I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising that point.

To conclude, the job of the Liberal Democrats is to be the constructive opposition in this place, and to now use Committee stage to inject into the Bill the ambition and urgency that we feel is currently lacking. To millions of people out there who care deeply about our waterways, the problems are obvious and so are many of the solutions. We call on the Government to accept the amendments that we will table in Committee in good faith, to act ambitiously and comprehensively, and to do so without delay.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call Helena Dollimore, a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

19:29

[Helena Dollimore (Hastings and Rye) (Lab/Co-op)]

I declare an interest as co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on water pollution. Today, we will vote on a landmark piece of legislation to begin the clean-up of our water industry. The measures in the Bill ramp up regulation, ban bosses’ bonuses and ensure independent monitors on every sewage outlet, linked to a system of automatic severe fines. Make no mistake: these are the biggest increase in powers for a generation, and the changes cannot come soon enough for my constituency.

Before I come to the devastating impact that Southern Water has unleashed on my constituency, I pay tribute to the campaigners and community volunteers who exposed the scandal. It is only because of their determination and detective work that we have understood the scale of the problem. Volunteers from the clean water action group in Hastings go out testing the water three times a week. I also thank our local East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, who time after time are the first on the scene when sewage is spilling out on to the street.

The community that I represent in Hastings and Rye is furious at the conduct of Southern Water. From Camber Sands to Old Roar Gill, sewage has poured on to our beaches and beauty spots. Our way of life as a seaside community has been compromised. Our appeal as a tourist destination has been tarnished and livelihoods have been ruined. Many people have got sick from swimming in the sea, or caught ear or eye infections. People have ended up in hospital with sickness, and one constituent even attributes her deafness in one ear to an infection that she caught swimming in the sea. Another constituent in Winchelsea beach told me that he cannot grow vegetables because for the last decade his back garden has been regularly flooded with sewage. A family in West St Leonards had to move out of their home for months and live in temporary accommodation after sewage flooded their home.

The town centre in Hastings was flooded twice in one year. Businesses and residents who had just moved back into redecorated homes saw their homes flooded all over again under a foot of sewage water. They then had to be rescued by firefighters. It was shameful. It has cost our community millions in damage, as well as the untold human cost of having possessions, property and livelihoods ruined. In the vast majority of cases, residents and businesses in my constituency have not been properly compensated by Southern Water. We have been left on our own to pick up the pieces, all while Southern Water’s boss has been allowed to collect a huge bonus. That money should be spent on fixing broken pipes, not rewarding failure.

[Dr Al Pinkerton (Surrey Heath) (LD)]

I commend the hon. Lady on her excellent speech, and her celebration of local campaigners. In my constituency, Thames Water is responsible for numerous sewage leaks and a great stink that lingered over our market town of Camberley last summer. Does she agree that the Bill needs to provide for tougher regulation, and greater transparency and accountability, to ensure that water companies put health and safety and water quality over shareholder dividends?

[Helena Dollimore]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. One of the things in the Bill that I really welcome is that it will stop water companies marking their own homework. The monitors on every outlet will report independently to the Government, so that we can issue automatic severe fines—a big change and step forward.

If huge amounts of sewage and major flooding in my constituency were not enough for one community to endure, we have also suffered major water outages at the hands of Southern Water. The taps have run dry twice in recent memory. In September 2023, 10,000 residents of Rye were left without water for up to nine days. In May this year, in Hastings, 30,000 people were left without water for five days. It caused huge disruption and had a major impact on local businesses. It has to stop. The Conservatives had 14 years to update the compensation guidelines for such incidents, and failed to act. Because of the action that this Labour Government are taking, if future incidents occur, my constituents will be eligible for greater compensation from Southern Water.

The Conservatives let the water companies off the hook for far too long. Instead of forcing the industry to invest in crumbling infrastructure, customers’ money was instead siphoned off into shareholder payouts and bonuses. My constituents now face record water bills because of that failure. We inherited a crumbling water system from the Conservative party, and this Labour Government are acting to clean up the mess. This Government are acting where the previous Conservative Government failed, to end the disgraceful behaviour of the water companies and their bosses with this Bill. This is just the start of the change. I thank the Government for announcing an independent commission on the water sector to see what more they can do to ensure that the water sector works for customers and the environment. I will work very hard to ensure that the voices of my residents in Hastings, Rye and the villages are heard as part of that process.

19:35

[Joy Morrissey (Beaconsfield) (Con)]

I welcome this Government’s continuation of the previous Government’s monitoring plans, and the fines that we had asked to be imposed upon water companies. I am the MP for Beaconsfield, Marlow and the south Bucks villages, which is a beautiful area along the Thames. We are also on a floodplain, and I have spent years working with the Farnham sewage action group, the Little Marlow sewage treatment works, the community and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ensure that we are monitoring our storm overflow discharge.

I welcome the Government’s commitment to increase the capital spend on sewage treatment works. That is a wonderful and welcome sign, particularly when two of my sewage treatment works were approved only in July, when Labour took over. That is great news, which I am very happy to see. The Farnham and Little Marlow treatment works are due to be completed in 2026 and 2028. It is a wonderful opportunity for the Government to put their money where their mouth is, and invest in the future of the Thames in Marlow and Farnham. Will the Minister confirm that that investment will be maintained and hold Thames Water to account on delivery to that timescale? I have heard Ministers speak from the Dispatch Box of the Government’s eagerness to commit to this, and I am presenting two wonderful examples that we can monitor in the months to come.

My constituency is home to not only beautiful Marlow but aquatic sports along the Thames, which many young people enjoy. We have the Marlow rowing club and the Borlase rowing club, as well as the Little Marlow treatment centre, which is one of the most heavily fined sewage overflow and treatment centres in the country. Aquatic sports are practised in that area. I would welcome the Minister’s consideration of an amendment that I will table in Committee and on Report to ensure that the statutory requirements for areas where aquatic sports are practised are the same as the requirements for bathing areas, so that when young people, particularly secondary school children, row along the Thames they can rest assured of the water quality. I hope that this will be at the centre of cross-party support for ensuring that places such as the Thames, Marlow, Beaconsfield, Farnham and Burnham are looked at in a holistic way, and that the capital spend needed to invest and upgrade our sewage system will be committed to from the Dispatch Box today. I would welcome any further information from the Minister.

19:38

[Jon Pearce (High Peak) (Lab)]

Today, we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the foundation of our national parks. The Peak District, where I live, the majority of which is in High Peak, is our original national park and still the best, but our beautiful nature-rich rivers that run through the Peak District and High Peak are being soiled by raw sewage. High Peak is one of the top 50 constituencies that have been worst affected by sewage being dumped into our rivers. In 2023, the River Derwent and the River Wye suffered thousands of sewage overflows, contributing to water pollution and ecological harm, yet the water company bosses responsible rewarded themselves with outrageous bonuses. In 2022, the United Utilities chief executive officer received £3.2 million of remuneration, including an annual bonus of nearly £1 million. Severn Trent, which was fined £2 million for reckless pollution, still lifted its bonuses to £3.36 million. We must stop rewarding failure.

At the general election, ending the pollution of High Peak’s rivers and waters was a top priority. It was raised in all six—yes, six—hustings I did, often more than once. In High Peak, the pumping of raw sewage into our precious rivers has become emblematic of the utter chaos and failure of the past 14 years, so I greatly welcome the measures in the Bill. The independent monitoring of all outlets will provide greater transparency for my constituents and will enable the regulators to hold United Utilities and Severn Trent to account. Combined with the increased ability of the Environment Agency to bring forward criminal charges against lawbreaking water executives with tougher penalties, including up to two years’ imprisonment, and new powers for Ofwat to ban bonuses unless water bosses meet higher standards of protecting our precious environment, that should concentrate the minds of executives at Severn Trent and United Utilities.

It was a Labour Government that created our national parks 75 years ago today, and it is a Labour Government that are taking the steps to protect the rivers that run through those parks for the next 75 years.

19:41

[Blake Stephenson (Mid Bedfordshire) (Con)]

I welcome many of the measures in the Bill and will focus in the time available on the real action our constituents need from Government to bring our sewage network up to date.

Too often and for too long, our constituents have paid the price for a failure of forward planning by the water industry. In September, my constituency was the victim of exceptional flooding. In the aftermath, as we sought to learn lessons, many stories involved raw sewage coming up into people’s homes and gardens and flowing down their streets in places such as Harlington, Barton-le-Clay and Greenfield, as excess surface water overwhelmed the sewage system. No one, be they in Mid Bedfordshire or anywhere else in our country, should see a storm cloud overhead and fear that they will end up ankle deep in sewage—not in the 21st century.

I say this is a problem of forward planning because a shocking example of industry neglect during the flooding came from new town Wixams. The town is still being built out, with construction beginning this century, and yet the flooding overwhelmed the wastewater and sewage infrastructure, which could not cope with the amount of water being discharged into it. Thousands more homes will be built in Wixams and across Mid Bedfordshire over the coming years. We must do more to force the water industry to ensure that those homes are served by infrastructure that is fit for purpose and climate resilient.

The previous Government recognised that we have a Victorian sewage network, and they stepped up requirements for water companies to invest in improving our infrastructure. This Government must be similarly ambitious. I welcome clause 4, which talks of the importance of nature-based solutions in drainage and sewage management plans, building on the previous Government’s work in their plan for water.

[Jess Brown-Fuller (Chichester) (LD)]

In 2023, Chichester experienced 990 spills lasting over 17,000 hours. It is an environmental scandal and a public health crisis. As the Secretary of State said in his opening comments, it is time to clean up our water once and for all, and I welcome the Bill. Does the hon. Member agree that nature-based solutions, such as wetlands, will play a vital role in reducing spills and can be brought in quickly, but only if the regulation allows?

[Blake Stephenson]

I absolutely agree on the importance of nature-based solutions, and those solutions are talked about frequently in my community and, I am sure, in communities across the country. They were not necessarily spoken about five or 10 years ago, but we have a real opportunity to make a difference if we focus and deliver on nature-based solutions.

We must go much further in this area to ensure that all our towns and cities are built to absorb water. On implementing sustainable urban drainage systems, I mentioned this previously to the Minister for Water, and I will keep banging on about it. We must bring into force schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010—I recognise that the Act is from 2010 and a lot has happened since then—and take much stronger action to ensure that drains do not become blocked.

One way we could tackle the problem of abstraction and, indeed, flooding is by backing projects like the Bedford to Milton Keynes waterway park, which would run through the Marston Vale in Mid Bedfordshire and help channel water to where it is most needed. I hope the Government will give that project the support it needs.

19:45

[Jodie Gosling (Nuneaton) (Lab)]

I am pleased to be called to speak on this crucial piece of legislation, which will directly benefit the people of Nuneaton. For far too long, water companies have operated with little accountability, prioritising profits and shareholder payouts instead of the wellbeing and community impact that is so important to my residents.

The people of Nuneaton are tired of our river being polluted with raw sewage, and they are tired of being ignored and seeing a lack of action from water companies such as Severn Trent. In 2023 there were 66 sewage dumps, totalling 464 hours of raw sewage flowing into our rivers. That is a staggering 38% increase in the number of dumps and a 60% increase in the duration compared with the year before. Now we are told that in Nuneaton we will be expected to take 60% additional sewage to accommodate for Hinckley. Rather than investment supporting the overflowing infrastructure we have, the infrastructure will only be used to accommodate our neighbours.

Despite Severn Trent failing to meet its compliance targets and risk factors increasing, we are seeing record-breaking profits of nearly £3 million, and there is no benefit to the people of Nuneaton. I have met Severn Trent, and I am interested in the positive narrative that we have heard, but that is incongruent with the experiences of my residents, especially those who live on Church Lane in Weddington, for whom sewage flowing down their streets and contaminated solids in their gardens have become all too commonplace.

I support the Bill to block bonuses for executives who oversee the environmental damage, and to bring criminal charges for those who persistently break environmental law.

19:49

[Helen Maguire (Epsom and Ewell) (LD)]

My constituency is home to two significant rivers: the Hogsmill, a pristine chalk stream; and the River Mole, which tragically ranks as one of the most polluted rivers in the country. The River Mole, stretching 50 miles from Sussex to the Thames, is more than a waterway; it is a much-loved amenity for families, walkers and wildlife. Yet it is fighting for its life. Sewage discharges surpassed 2023 levels by November this year, with over 12,500 hours of raw sewage polluting the river through storm overflows. That is unacceptable. The crisis has been caused by water companies’ mismanagement, enabled by Ofwat’s failure to hold them to account. Thames Water has prioritised shareholder dividends over infrastructure investment, and Ofwat has issued no fines for sewage treatment failures since 2021—an extraordinary regulatory failure.

The Water (Special Measures) Bill introduces vital provisions to block bonuses for water company executives and to impose fines. Although these measures are welcome, they do not go far enough. Ofwat is a regulator that does not work, and it must be replaced with a new regulator with powers to ban bonuses comprehensively, to revoke licences for poor performance and to set legally binding sewage targets. Bonuses must be blocked not just for pollution, but for persistent leaks, missed investment targets and failing infrastructure improvements. The Liberal Democrats would ensure that the companies are held accountable for all their failures, not just the most egregious ones.

We must also rethink water company ownership. Since privatisation, those companies have accumulated £68 billion of debt, while paying out £70 billion in dividends. Customers are now paying for that debt in their bills. In a public-benefit model operating as not for profit, debt-free mutuals would reinvest all profits into upgrading our water system. That model works. Denmark, whose not-for-profit utilities have some of the lowest water losses, ranks among the top EU countries for bathing water quality.

Closer to home, I commend the River Mole river watch group in my constituency. Those dedicated volunteers test water quality and report pollution online. Their work is extraordinary, but they should not have to do it alone. Water companies must publish detailed and transparent data on sewage spills so that the public understands the full extent of the problem. Such local groups deserve more than praise; they need a seat at the table. Those environmental champions should have representation on water company boards, bringing community-driven accountability to decision making.

My constituents and the rest of the public are sick of seeing their rivers turned into open sewers. They are sick of paying higher water bills to subsidise shareholder profits and executive bonuses while vital investment is neglected. The Government must go further by replacing Ofwat with a new regulator that has stronger powers, expanding the ban on bonuses, empowering local communities, and reorganising water companies into public benefit organisations. This is our chance to turn the tide on water mismanagement and restore our rivers to health. The people of Epsom and Ewell, and indeed of the whole country, deserve no less.

19:50

[Alison Hume (Scarborough and Whitby) (Lab)]

Last year, more than 100 people met at South bay in Scarborough to protest about the consistently poor water quality. Ironically, as they prepared to enter the water, they were approached by lifeguards who told them that it was not safe to do so because of the high levels of sewage. The event was organised by Surfers Against Sewage. One of its members, Steve, who is a constituent of mine, has had to close his surfing business because the water quality is so poor that he cannot guarantee the health and wellbeing of his surf students.

I also have the fantastic Wave Project in my constituency of Scarborough and Whitby. That charity is committed to improving children’s mental health and wellbeing through its award-winning surf therapy programme, which enables children and young people to build confidence and overcome anxiety barriers through surfing. However, it regularly has to cancel sessions at short notice because of the poor water quality, which causes immense upset for youngsters and their families.

Away from my beautiful beaches, the River Esk starts its 28-mile journey in Westerdale in the north York moors and flows eastward to Whitby. It is the only major river in Yorkshire that flows directly into the North sea, and it is both commercially and ecologically important. It supports Atlantic salmon, sea trout and the endangered freshwater pearl mussel. However, pollution is destroying the health of the River Esk. Eighteen storm overflows—17 of which are in my constituency—discharge into the river. In 2023 there were 637 sewage spills. The worst offender was Ruswarp sewage pumping station, which had 126 spills. Such discharges release pollutants, which reduce water quality and cause harm to aquatic life. That is particularly concerning during the salmon spawning season, as it can affect fish eggs and juvenile fish.

Yorkshire Water has stood back and let that happen. It is hardly surprising that, after Yorkshire Water was fined £47 million for historical sewage spills and poor customer service, campaign groups continue to call on its chief executive to repay the £371,000 bonus that she received last year. Where is the accountability? Official figures show that 87% of rivers in Yorkshire and the Humber fail to achieve a good ecological standard. It cannot be right that people’s health and livelihoods, as well as our precious environment, have been so severely impacted by privatised companies that put profit before people and the planet.

I welcome the measures in this ambitious Bill, especially the move to boost accountability, which will mean that the chief executive of Yorkshire Water will no longer receive her bonus unless she meets high standards in protecting the environment and customers. The new requirement on the water companies to report on the frequency and duration of all emergency storm overflows within an hour of a discharge taking place will tell us the real story for the first time. Only then can we draw a line under this disgraceful era of profit at any cost, and move towards fixing the broken water industry.

19:54

[Sarah Bool (South Northamptonshire) (Con)]

It is absolutely right and correct that we debate these measures to improve the water industry. In the light of continued concerns over Thames Water and Southern Water, action must be taken to protect our water service.

It is important to take a step back and put the debate into its proper context. We must appreciate that most of the UK has a combined sewerage system, meaning that both rainwater and wastewater are carried in the same pipes, before wastewater goes into a sewage treatment plant. If, as in recent weeks, we have exceedingly heavy rainfall, capacity can be exceeded and water companies are allowed to spill untreated wastewater into rivers and seas—otherwise, there is a risk of flooding people’s homes with waste. There has been an issue of companies doing that when there has been no rain—known as a dry spill—which is not acceptable.

Although it has been miscommunicated by other parties and by the Secretary of State, the previous Government took the vital step of requiring storm overflows to be monitored. As hon. Friends have said, that monitoring increased from 7% in 2010 to 100% in 2024. It has enabled discussions and plans to fix the poor behaviour of the water companies. The overflows were always happening, but the previous Government’s monitoring caught the poor behaviour and highlighted the action that was required.

[Peter Swallow (Bracknell) (Lab)]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Joe Morris (Hexham) (Lab)]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Sarah Bool]

Not just yet.

No monitoring does not mean that water is clean, as the Secretary of State seemed to suggest. One must be faithful to the facts.

We will support this Bill’s Second Reading because it includes many measures that the previous Government established—for example, companies that pollute the environment can be hit with unlimited fines, and water bosses can be banned from receiving bonuses if their companies commit serious criminal breaches. However, some measures need to be amended, including to maintain the previous Government’s water restoration fund. Why has that not been continued?

We must ensure that we focus on our water infrastructure, which is largely out of date. Poor maintenance causes leakages, and poor capacity leads to sewage overflows. Tackling those problems will require investment and innovation. Ofwat must use its powers more effectively to better monitor performance and enforce standards in a timely fashion. Although I acknowledge the Bill’s focus on penalties for water companies, we must ensure that incentives for investment and change are in place for the years to come.

19:57

[Amanda Hack (North West Leicestershire) (Lab)]

I welcome the Bill as a first step towards broader change across the water sector to ensure that it works for people. The number of complaints about water and the management of our waterways has been a key concern for people in North West Leicestershire for some time, but residents feel that water companies have not acted while bills have predictably continued to rise.

When I was a member of Leicestershire county council’s environment and climate change scrutiny committee, I pushed for the water companies in Leicestershire to attend our committee, which they did—eventually—in November 2022. They gave a great presentation with some glossy pictures, but their suggestions, which looked nice on paper, simply have not materialised. My impression was that there was a severe lack of transparency and accountability among those companies about the damage that they were doing to our water system, which followed the previous Conservative Government’s unwillingness to act and push them to clear up their mess. The long-term priorities for the water companies have been shareholder and executive pay. They have been taking bonuses while polluting our waterways, and increasing debt without increasing investment.

There are signs of recovery, however. The Bill has not yet become law, but there has been a shift in Severn Trent Water’s willingness to clear up its mess in North West Leicestershire, and its hard-working employees have appeared to start engaging with us. That must continue if we are to challenge the constant impact that poor water quality is having on our communities and our environment. Water issues are a constant in my casework files, as they are for so many hon. Members, and local people have been in touch to report dry weather outflows. They are asking, quite rightly, about the legitimacy of outflows in dry weather and of large-volume releases during wet conditions. What is clear is that those releases have been seriously damaging for our communities.

Let me bring home an example of the importance of this Bill. I have been working with a group of residents in Whitwick in my constituency who have a shared garden space next to the Grace Dieu brook, where they have a storm drain. That storm drain regularly releases effluent, and when I visited recently, despite having had a crew to clear up, it was clear that there was still debris. While the water in the brook had been tested immediately after the spill and found to be within a normal range, the residual smell remained—it just clung—meaning that those residents were unable to use their personal space.

There is another site in Donington le Heath, which is home to the most-used sewer outflow in my constituency. I was invited to see a resident who has a smallholding close by. They have a storm drain on their land alongside the River Sence, a particularly beautiful watercourse. When I visited earlier in the year, they had just had an effluent release, and despite 10 bags of rubbish having been cleared from the area, there was still a clear path of debris from the spill. This keeps happening, and it has to stop. Those are just two cases in which our local communities have borne the impact of poor decision making and a lack of investment in infrastructure. They should not have to manage untreated waste while the execs get their bonuses—communities should not have to continue to deal with this.

This Bill puts failing water companies under special measures and sends a clear message that this Government are ready to take the action necessary to fix our foundations. It is the start we need to deliver the transformational change that our water system desperately needs.

20:00

[Alison Griffiths (Bognor Regis and Littlehampton) (Con)]

It is an honour to speak on such an important issue, one that affects my coastal constituency daily. Sewage discharges, water quality, and the related issue of flooding are among the most pressing concerns for my constituents.

The Environment Agency’s bathing water classifications, updated on 26 November, reveal alarming declines in water quality. Bognor Regis East’s classification dropped from good to sufficient, while Aldwick’s remained poor for the third consecutive year. Abuses of our water system are having a serious impact on public health, our vital tourism industry and our natural environment. However, by focusing only on water companies and sewage, this Bill delivers an oversimplified approach. There is an urgent need for holistic and comprehensive solutions to protect our waters, prevent flooding and tackle sewage discharges. This issue is not simply about water companies and sewage, but the Bill falls into the trap of focusing solely on them.

In Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, the situation is compounded by recurring flooding, which affects businesses and homes from Shripney Road and Durban Road on the boundary of the constituency to Fish Lane and Rope Walk in Aldwick and Littlehampton respectively. That flooding is exacerbated by extensive house building on our flood plain and by the local topography. Without infrastructure improvements and an integrated action plan, sewage outflows will continue to blight our coastline. Combined, these issues are causing a decline in our tourism industry, devastation to homes and businesses, increases in insurance premiums and significant financial losses for affected local businesses and employers. This is not a mild inconvenience for a few sea swimmers—although I count myself among their number—but something that affects our entire area.

As such, the Water (Special Measures) Bill is a timely opportunity to accelerate essential environmental improvements. I am concerned, though, that the Government are not sufficiently grasping this opportunity. The absence of robust enforcement measures for proposed reporting is particularly concerning. Clause 2 requires water companies to “prepare and publish” annual pollution incident reduction plans. That is a step towards greater accountability, which I welcome. However, the clause lacks enforceability and thus any purpose, as it mandates only the preparation and publication of those plans, not their implementation. As such, will the Government amend the Bill to ensure the delivery of measures set out in those reports and provide the necessary enforcement powers? My constituents, and the public, are weary of empty promises on water quality. It is essential that this Bill mandates that water companies deliver measurable improvements, not meaningless promises.

[Ms Billington]

The hon. Lady and I share concerns about the safety and health of our seawater. I just want to clarify for her that we have accepted the Lords amendment in relation to the enforcement plans, and are ensuring that those plans will be on the face of the Bill.

[Alison Griffiths]

I thank the hon. Lady for clarifying that point. Letting the Bill pass without that amendment would have been a disservice, so I am delighted to hear it.

20:05

[Dr Allison Gardner (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab)]

In my constituency, we do not have a single unpolluted watercourse. Last year, on the Conservative Government’s watch, Severn Trent Water, the company that covers my constituency, was responsible for over 60,000 sewage overflows nationally. In Stoke-on-Trent South, we have had 24 sites polluted by 337 sewage dumps lasting a total of 1,570 hours.

I have spoken many times about the impact of flooding and sewage pollution in my constituency. I have highlighted the ongoing battle of the village of Upper Tean to combat frequent flooding and pollution of the River Tean. Upper Tean’s village recreation space, with a children’s playground, is frequently flooded with sewage-contaminated water. The people of Upper Tean are good people, and are willing to work with all agencies via the newly created Tean flood action group to positively rectify these problems. Indeed, the most recent meeting had a positive outcome, in that a particular outflow will have CCTV monitoring installed to address the issue of false sensor recordings and to address poor communication within Severn Trent regarding the reporting of incidents. Through local meetings with the people who are affected and with local water representatives who come in good faith, we can make change.

Following on from our experience in Upper Tean, I cannot stress enough the importance of listening to consumers and empowering the citizen voice, so I am pleased to note that new section 35B of the Water Industry Act 1991 will require that consumers be involved in the water companies’ decision-making processes, and I welcome the Secretary of State’s announcements regarding the requirement for customer panels. I want to ensure that guidelines are laid out so that such panels are not tick-box consultations that can be manipulated with clever questions. They must be truly participatory, with diverse input, offering constructive criticism and solutions that make a difference in real life. We must always put the people and their voice at the heart of decision making.

In Tean, after much prolonged pressure, we have seen that we can develop positive local relationships between representatives of water companies and citizens. However, the same cannot be said of the chief exec, who seems rather resistant to meeting or even replying personally to emails, but is quite happy to take her bonus. As such, I welcome the Bill and its focus on empowering regulators to hold the water companies and their chief executives to account, including by blocking bonuses, bringing criminal charges and being able to implement automatic, severe fines. People are fed up of being taken for mugs—cash cows to deliver paydays for shareholders. We bathe in sewage while shareholders and execs are showered with dividends and bonuses. This Bill is just the start of this Labour Government’s journey to hold those companies to account, bringing an end to the profiteering and the decay of our water infrastructure, and to turn the tide on pollution. It should be supported by Members on all sides of the House, and I hope it sails through today.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I call Ellie Chowns, a member of the Select Committee.

20:08

[Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)]

I declare an interest as a founding co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on water pollution. As the Minister well knows, I have a deep and abiding interest in the theme of water pollution. I gently remind her that agricultural run-off is the primary source of water pollution in my constituency, and I welcome the constructive conversations we had on that topic last week. Today, I will talk about the broader topic of the Bill.

Water companies have extracted £85 billion of value from our water industry since privatisation—that is an extraordinary figure—and their flagrant abuse of our rivers, seas and lakes is a stain on our country, literally as well as figuratively. Some 30% of all water bills now go on debt servicing and dividends, and this is money that should be going towards maintaining and improving our water infrastructure and services. Thames Water, Southern Water and South East Water have all had their credit ratings downgraded, meaning that about a third of bill payers in England and Wales are now paying their bills to junk-rated companies, which again is extraordinary. As companies’ finances get worse, new debt gets more expensive to service, and where does the money come from? The money comes from bill payers.

It is clear for all to see that the interests of water company shareholders and the interests of the public are at odds. It is not possible to use our water as a vehicle for maximum short-term profit and at the same time to deliver safe, reliable, affordable drinking water and a clean environment. One comes at the expense of the other.

[Caroline Voaden (South Devon) (LD)]

Will the hon. Member give way?

[Ellie Chowns]

I am really sorry, but I will not give way because I know so many Members want to come in.

In my view and that of my Green colleagues, the only way to run a water system in the interests of people and nature is to take away the profit motive entirely. It should never have been allowed near our water industry in the first place. Any steps to end this culture of impunity in the water industry are very welcome. Unfortunately, the measures in this Bill are, in my view, largely to look nice in headlines, and they are maybe a bit of an attempt to look busy. I say that gently, but I do think we need to go further. In fact, the majority of the British public agree with me: 82% of the British public believe that we should have water in public ownership. I challenge the Government to take up that mantle—that mandate—from the British public to do the right thing, and to take the profit motive out of water entirely.

I always believe in talking about areas of common ground, and I recognise that multiple elements of this Bill are positive steps. I will, with my colleagues, be supporting it. I welcome the extension of monitoring requirements for sewage overflows, and I welcome the requirement for more customer involvement in decision making, which I would like to see extended to worker representation as well. I welcome the encouragement for companies to consider much more use of nature-based solutions, and I would love to see this extended even further.

To be honest, however, what we have seen with the financial mess that the companies are in is the complete failure of the model of privatisation. We need to do more than just tinkering at the edges. The Government’s water commission will not even be allowed to consider the question of public ownership, so it will hunt high and low for solutions while continuing to kick the can down the road. Is it not time that the Minister faced the reality that profit in water has failed, and to do what the majority of the British public want, which is to bring our water and sewage utilities back into public ownership?

20:12

[James Naish (Rushcliffe) (Lab)]

Thank you, Madame Deputy Speaker, for inviting me to speak. Like many colleagues, I stood on the banks of my local river, the River Trent, during the general election campaign, and looking out over the murky waters, I promised residents that the next Government would change a broken system. This broken system has enabled our water quality to drop to the point where only 14% of rivers and lakes in England have a good ecological status, according to the Environment Agency. Since being elected, hundreds of residents of Rushcliffe have contacted me to say they are concerned about our broken water and sewerage system, describing it as symptomatic of a broken Britain. I am therefore pleased that today’s Bill marks the start of a significant turnaround process for the health of our nation’s water.

Local to Rushcliffe, the data has been consistently going in the wrong direction. There were 471 sewage dumps in my constituency in 2022, and this more than doubled to 958 sewage dumps in 2023. The absolute number of sewage dumps is of course a crude indicator, but, sadly, the cumulative impact has also grown from 3,733 hours in 2022 to 10,774 hours in 2023. The direct impact on Rushcliffe residents is palpable, especially in villages such as East Leake that are susceptible to flooding, which frequently includes rural sewage. I welcome the works that Severn Trent is starting to take by upgrading a nearby treatment works, doubling processing capacity by the end of March 2025. However, for many residents this investment is far too late and should have been made years ago, in an era when water companies were creaming off profits and failing to act as true and honest custodians of the national water network.

To that end, I encourage the Secretary of State and his team to think carefully about who we want to be the future custodians of our water network. If water and sewage companies go under, I believe we—the state—should always be prepared to step in to offer a genuine public alternative to hedge funds and the like. As with rail and energy, we should be prepared to start a process whereby the state once again offers to play a more active role in running basic universal services, challenging private sector organisations that have happily paid out dividends while allowing 3 billion litres of water every day to be lost through leaky pipes.

Fundamentally, I believe it is the right of each and every one of us to be able to enjoy our beautiful rivers, lakes and seas without the fear of getting sick. So on behalf of my constituents in Rushcliffe, I welcome the many positive measures in this Bill as it seeks to enhance enforcement powers and to start cleaning up our water for good. Moving forwards, there should be no more sticking plaster fixes, because, quite frankly, the very least that my constituents deserve is a water and sewage system fit for the 21st century.

20:16

[David Reed (Exmouth and Exeter East) (Con)]

I thank the Government for introducing this Bill and the Minister for Water for meeting me last week.

This is a vital issue, not least for my constituents in Exmouth and Exeter East. Across my constituency, from Cranbrook to Exmouth, we have felt the full force of South West Water’s neglectful and harmful behaviours. This year across the county of Devon, we have experienced the full gamut of the damaging effects of a water company that is crying out to be reformed, be it by legal or regulatory tightening. From cryptosporidium parasite outbreaks in the Brixham area to the closure of beaches in Exmouth, our county has had enough. Our local wellbeing, health and economy have been significantly impacted, and our beautiful home is starting to gain a national reputation for all the wrong reasons.

We have a responsibility to ensure that the Bill is as effective and strong as it can possibly be, and that means listening carefully to voices from all parts of the House. Most Members will be familiar with the long history of this issue, so I will not relitigate arguments that have been made already, but it is important to reiterate that this is not a problem that has emerged overnight. We have collectively dropped the ball on this issue—from the last Labour Government under Blair and Brown to the Lib Dem-Conservative coalition and the last Governments, we are all in part complicit—[Interruption.] I think that is a very fair point. This has happened over many decades, and I would very much like to reiterate that point to Labour Members.

Although it is absolutely right that we strive to end the unacceptable practice of sewage discharges, we must confront the hard truth that we cannot transform these crumbling systems overnight without disastrous consequences, such as sewage backing up into people’s homes, on to our streets and into our communities. That is why we must commit ourselves to the long haul. This will require sustained investment, careful planning and clear accountability, not short-term fixes or political point scoring.

[Caroline Voaden]

The hon. Member mentioned the cryptosporidium incident in May in Brixham in my constituency, where 17,000 houses were affected by contaminated water. A boil water notice was enforced for eight weeks, and many of my constituents are still suffering from that. I say to the Minister that, when the Drinking Water Inspectorate reports next year, I hope the water company will be forced to pay proper compensation, because it would appear that its negligence and not maintaining its facilities over the past decades was possibly one of the causes of the contamination.

[David Reed]

I thank the hon. Member for raising those points; this issue has affected our county, and I hope that members of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee raise it as fast as possible, to ensure that South West Water is held accountable and placed in front of them to answer questions about how that outbreak happened. I reiterate that our constituents deserve a solution that is ambitious but achievable. It was under the previous Government that the scale of the issue was truly identified—a point that has been raised repeatedly this evening.

[Peter Swallow]

The hon. Member is correct: many Conservative Members have raised the issue of monitoring, and they have repeatedly mentioned storm overflows. Will he put on record how many emergency overflows are currently being monitored?

[David Reed]

This is a major issue. We are talking about the sewage network for an entire country. The last Government pushed for storm overflows to be looked at, and I am glad that the Bill, which has been brought forward by this Government, will look at emergency overflows.

As we know, the landmark Environment Act 2021 gave regulators stronger powers to tackle pollution and ensure greater transparency, holding water companies and polluters accountable. The last Government also set legally binding targets to improve water quality, reduce pollution and enhance biodiversity, while the plan for water took a systematic, local, catchment-based approach, requiring significant investment in storm overflow improvements. That was decisive action to hold water companies to account, linking performance to shareholder payments, banning bonuses for water bosses responsible for serious breaches, and empowering regulators to impose unlimited financial penalties on polluters.

[Josh Babarinde (Eastbourne) (LD)]

In Eastbourne, we are blessed with 94 beaches, but our water quality has dropped from “excellent” in 2015, to a low of “satisfactory” under the last Government. At the same time, Southern Water has made significant amounts of money—with more than £2.9 billion in dividends, and the chief executive receiving £183,000 in bonuses this year and a salary of £765,000. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the last Government allowed that to happen, and will he apologise for what they allowed to happen to our water industry?

[David Reed]

The hon. Gentleman mentioned 2015, so let me return to the point I just made: these problems did not happen overnight. He will know that the Liberal Democrats were in coalition with the Conservatives until 2015.

The previous Government took decisive action to hold water companies accountable, linking performance to shareholder payouts, banning bonuses for water bosses responsible for serious breaches, and empowering regulators to impose unlimited financial penalties on polluters. Those actions laid a solid foundation, and it is important to note that many elements of the Bill mirror work already undertaken by the last Government. For example, the confiscation of bonuses from water company executives responsible for pollution is already in motion under existing frameworks. Many measures outlined in the Bill were already being implemented and do not require primary legislation.

To make real, lasting improvements, we need a more wide-ranging strategy, and I hope the Government will listen carefully to constructive criticism, because my constituents in Exmouth and Exeter East, like so many others, deserve nothing less. As I have emphasised, we are committed to collaboration on this issue, to ensure that we make vital progress on limiting water pollution.

20:23

[Tristan Osborne (Chatham and Aylesford) (Lab)]

I rise to speak in support of a crucial and overdue piece of legislation: a Bill to regulate, govern, and establish special administration measures for water companies in the United Kingdom. This is not just a matter of environmental stewardship; it is a matter of public trust, local accountability, and the health of all our communities. This issue matters to all our constituents, including mine, who have expressed deep frustration with the way that water companies are managed. In 2023 alone, we witnessed 1,011 sewage dumps in the Medway catchment area—in a tidal area known for its sites of special scientific interest and RSPB nature reserves. Time and again we see news of raw sewage being discharged into our waterways, resulting in devastating pollution levels.

Watershed investigations have uncovered a cocktail of nearly 500 chemicals in our rivers, and found that the River Medway—a chalk aquifer, no less—is the joint worst most polluted river in the UK. According to the Angling Trust, chemicals detected include ketamine and fluoranthene—a very toxic compound used in pet flea repellent, which undiluted has been described as “Novichok for honeybees”, with one drop able to kill thousands and thousands of insects. I think of those who walk along the riverbanks, work on our rivers, enjoy our parks, or fish in our waters, unaware of the devastating pollution levels that were allowed under the previous Government. How can we explain to the people of Medway, or anywhere in the UK, that such practices were allowed to continue?

Over the last 14 years we have seen weakened regulation, a failure to invest in infrastructure, and the turning of a blind eye as water bosses pocketed millions of pounds in bonuses. It was a kind of perverse performance related pay where, it seemed to many, the higher the discharges, the greater the bonuses. Some may argue that privatised water companies are critical for investment and efficiency, that profit motives encourage innovation, and that regulation would stifle growth and deter private sector involvement. It is, however, welcome that there is some element of cross-party consensus that privatised, low-regulation industry has failed this nation.

The truth lies in responsible action. We need strong Government regulation to ensure that water companies meet their obligations, balanced with the empowerment of local governments and communities to oversee and protect their resources. The current state of our rivers is a disgrace and we need change. Let us introduce stricter penalties for water companies that fail to meet environmental standards, and push for greater investment in our infrastructure, including significant upgrades to waste water plants. The Bill is about more than just fixing a broken system; it is about creating a sustainable future for our children. Cleaner, greener rivers mean healthier communities, stronger governance means fairer water bills and better services, and a protected environment means that we can safeguard not just our wonderful wildlife, but also the quality of life for generations to come.

It is absurd to think that in 21st-century Britain, human waste is being dumped in major waterways, and that we have allowed that to be the status quo. To my colleagues in the Chamber tonight I say: support this Bill. To the people of Medway and beyond, who I represent, I say: demand better from those entrusted with your most vital resource. Together, we can build a system that works for everyone, not just for shareholders, but for families, businesses and the environment.

20:27

[David Chadwick (Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe) (LD)]

As the MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe, I am in the honourable position of representing a constituency containing three mighty rivers: the River Usk, the River Tawe, and the world famous River Wye all rise in the hills and mountains of Mid Wales and pass through this giant constituency. All the water in the Wye ought to be considered a national treasure, stretching as it does across some of the most picturesque landscapes, providing habitats for an array of wildlife, and supporting multiple communities through tourism and recreation. Yet sadly, the Rive Wye is dying at an astonishing speed. That is why strengthening the regulation of our water companies is understandably a major priority for my constituents.

I know that my constituents are disgusted by the reality of sewage dumping, as many of them have told me so. Wild swimmers, anglers and kayakers are just three groups affected by sewage dumping and the knock-on impact that has on our local economy, yet in Wales, the environmental regulator—Natural Resources Wales—is chronically underfunded and has faced decades of budget and staffing cuts by the Welsh Labour Government. Those cuts have left it unable to fulfil its role, meaning that the current legislation is not being properly enforced. NRW requested a minimum of 50 extra staff members just to do its job properly, and 250 additional staff members to do it well.

The expansion of regulatory powers must be matched with the necessary resources to strengthen the regulator’s hand and to enable enforcement. Despite the River Wye being probably the most famous case of river pollution in the UK, it might surprise some to learn that the other two rivers in my constituency, the Usk and the Tawe, are in even worse health, with all three sadly placing in the top 30 most sewage-filled rivers in the UK. While I welcome the legislation strengthening the monitoring of emergency overflows, it is important to recognise that citizen scientists, such as the Friends of the Upper Wye and Save the River Usk, have been doing most of the legwork when it comes to telling us what exactly is in our rivers and where particular areas of concern are. That is why the Liberal Democrats are calling for community groups to have the right to representation on water company boards, so that we bring back that local expertise on board.

20:29

[Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)]

I refer to my declaration in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I am co-chair of the all-party parliamentary water group and chair of the all-party parliamentary group for sustainable flood and drought management.

If our forests are the lungs of the environment, then our rivers, streams and other watercourses are its veins and arteries. They carry vital nutrients and elements around their catchments, ensuring that our flora and fauna flourish and thrive. Globally, we know that all species are currently dying out at rates more than 100 times the normal evolutionary rates of extinction. Locally, the picture is just as bleak. According to the most recent Rivers Trust report, “The State of Our Rivers”, no single stretch of river in England or Northern Ireland is in good overall health, and toxic chemicals persist in every single stretch of English river.

Pollution in rivers comes from a variety of sources, including trade, agriculture, highways, riparian assets and sewage assets, among others. Whether we are tackling floods, drought or pollution, there is a need to bring all agencies with a responsibility for managing our water together to plan for and deliver a sustainable water future. There has never been so much public focus on the water industry. Recent years have seen: the renewed emergence of open-water swimming in a time where people explored their local environment much more during covid; the growth of citizen science increasing the available data on offer; campaign groups making a huge breakthrough in highlighting the challenges we face; and, increased data transparency showing there to be real problems. The public have lost faith in the industry and in the Government’s ability to regulate it, with widespread concerns about under-investment in infrastructure and unacceptable levels of pollution.

The measures in the Water (Special Measures) Bill are the start of fulfilling the Government’s ambition for the water sector as a whole. I am proud that within days of taking up Government, the Labour party started to work on this Bill. I am equally pleased that an independent commission led by Sir Jon Cunliffe has been announced to commence a full end-to-end review of the water sector regulation system. This Bill delivers on the Government’s promise to ensure that water companies are held to account in delivering service and environmental obligations, and in doing so begin to rebuild much-needed trust.

While there has been much discussion today on combined sewer overflows and other sewage discharges, I am keen to highlight the types of intervention that will be needed to clean up our rivers and seas, and the focus on nature-based solutions in the Bill as part of the drainage water management plans. Grey infrastructure, new pipes, pumps, sewers and additional treatment capacity will always be part of the equation, but as we look to become more sustainable, I am encouraged to see reference to nature-based solutions and their future role in the Bill.

[Vikki Slade (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)]

I completely agree with the hon. Member about natural solutions. The urban wastewater treatment directive seems to be completely counterintuitive. In Wareham in my constituency, we have a chemical-based removal system that cost £10 million and delivered a 10 tonne a year saving, whereas a nature-based solution was calculated to deliver 90 tonnes a year, but at a fraction of the cost. Does he agree that that is definitely the way to go?

[Lee Pitcher]

I definitely agree that we require a whole range of different types of solution, including blue-green and the more traditional.

Blue-green infrastructure comes from working with the landscape and environment to create a new type of asset that can not only reduce flood risk or store water to be used later in times of drought, but attenuate pollutants before they go into watercourses and improve water quality at source. Such infrastructure includes the creation of ponds and rain gardens, rewilding, woodlands, mini-forests and wetlands, building in buffer strips, hedgerows and green roofs as part of new development, and engaging in smart soil management. Importantly, those have wider-reaching opportunities, too. They bring opportunities for new skills and new jobs, they facilitate nature recovery, and they provide a means of education for young adults.

The Government needed to respond fast with immediate action. They have done just that with the Bill. They needed to ensure that, in parallel, a sustainable view of the whole water sector regulatory regime was taken. They have done that with the announcement of the commission. That is the difference that a Labour Government make. On behalf of my constituents, I fully support the Bill.

20:35

[Ann Davies (Caerfyrddin) (PC)]

Diolch, Madam Dirprwy Lefarydd. With deteriorating water standards while customers pay higher and higher bills, the water sector’s overhaul is no doubt overdue. Tougher restrictions on water companies that have paid eye-watering bonuses as untreated sewage flows into our rivers are welcomed. We have heard numbers from various constituencies, but listen to this, bois: my constituency of Caerfyrddin saw the most sewage dumped in 2023, with over 11,000 dumps lasting over 115,000 hours. Good reporting may be a factor, but the track record of not-for-profit Dŵr Cymru is not fantastic: it was fined £40 million for misleading over poor performance, while Ofwat had to block £163,000 of undeserved customer-funded bonuses, so further regulation is necessary and overdue.

However, I have some concerns regarding the Bill. First, River Action and Surfers Against Sewage have highlighted Ofwat’s continued duty to make reasonable returns for water companies, prioritising profit over environmental and public health. Profit-wise, Storm Darragh clearly showed in west Wales that supply becomes an issue when power is lost. Therefore, infrastructure investment is sorely needed.

Secondly, the extension of storm overflow monitoring to cover emergency overflows is a good idea in principle, but to make a real difference we must move away from unreliable and limited event-duration monitors to a better monitoring model that provides more insightful data on volume and discharge type. Some of those are already in motion. The Teifi nutrient monitoring project uses high-frequency monitoring sensors and multi-sondes along the Teifi river. Supported by citizen science, data is collected four times a day, tracking pollution and identifying sources, which will guide action plans for the Teifi, Tywi and Cleddau rivers. When I was a county councillor on Carmarthenshire county council, I was delighted to be part of the nutrient management team putting those sonde monitors into the river and promoting nature-based solutions.

Plaid Cymru believes that Wales should have full control over its water resources. Much of the Bill’s provisions are already devolved matters, subject to Senedd consent. According to a recent statement, Labour Senedd Members believe that it is in the “best interest of Wales” for the UK Parliament sometimes to legislate in devolved areas, including where that enables policy objectives to be most effectively achieved. The sanctity of Welsh devolution should never be vulnerable to the whims of any London party politics, and that Labour policy does cause long-term concern.

The aims of the Bill are welcome, and the current scandal of water quality must be resolved. However, we need to ensure that the Bill adequately prioritises environmental and public health without undermining devolution.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. I am going to reduce the time limit to three minutes, after the next speaker. I call Andrew Pakes.

20:38

[Andrew Pakes (Peterborough) (Lab)]

Phew! Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. [Laughter.] I am privileged to speak on Second Reading of a Bill that is of huge interest to my constituents and the country. After 14 years, the new Government have inherited record levels of illegal sewage dumping in our rivers, lakes and seas, an Environment Agency budget halved since 2010, crumbling infrastructure, with bursting pipes and record spills, and unaccountable water companies.

It is time to change that. It is time to hold our water companies to account and to start fixing the problem. That is why this Government have made the Water (Special Measures) Bill a priority. We need immediate action to end the disgraceful behaviour of water companies and their unruly bosses. We had more than 3,000 hours of sewage poured into our rivers in my constituency alone last year. A lot of sewage came out of the last Government, but certainly not the sewage we are talking about tonight.

After our sewage discharges, Anglian Water, which I know is many Members’ provider, belatedly had to pay £38 million to Ofwat. The year before, Anglian Water’s chief executive received a £1.3 million package in pay and bonuses, despite the company’s poor performance. Despite overseeing the catastrophic failure, water chief executives have paid themselves more than £41 million in bonuses and incentives since 2010. It gets worse: Thames Water’s boss took a £195,000 bonus at the end of March for just three months’ work. That is the unacceptable face of unaccountable privatisation.

Little wonder, then, that constituents writing to me are angry and that people have so little faith in the power of accountability and regulation, when so little was done by the last Government. I asked Ofwat these questions directly when it appeared before the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee recently. The answers were wanting. That is why the Bill is so needed, and why Ministers have brought it forward so quickly. It sets out new powers to make water companies accountable, to ban bonuses for CEOs and senior leaders unless high standards are met, and criminal liability for water executives, and it sets out a new approach to ensuring that water companies live up to their environmental obligations and serve the public good. I want to put on record my thanks to those public servants who have been fighting hard against the water companies, despite the cuts of the last decade: those in the Environment Agency, the public servants in our water utilities, and members of GMB, Unison and Prospect who know what looking after our water and nature is really about.

The Bill treads where the last Government failed to go. Let us be clear about the Conservatives’ legacy: they failed to invest in broken infrastructure and let consumer money be spent irresponsibly on bonuses and shareholder payouts. The Bill rightly calls time on that unruly behaviour. It begins to restore trust in the management of our waterways and in public service and accountable regulation. I commend the Bill.

20:42

[Jack Rankin (Windsor) (Con)]

The role of Opposition is to scrutinise the Government, but as a Member of Parliament I will always be willing to support changes in the law that my constituents have been calling for. This legislation represents an opportunity to start rebuilding our water infrastructure and improve water security for future generations, and we need to get it right. I want to help make sure that it is not simply cosmetic, or contains measures that do not require primary legislation or things that were already being progressed by the previous Government. I wish to offer some constructive thoughts.

Like many Members, I have local issues. In the past week alone, I have been out with the Eton Wick Waterways Group to inspect the effluent overflow of Slough treatment works in the Boveney ditch, which I am working on with my hon. Friend the Member for Beaconsfield (Joy Morrissey), and with residents in the Boltons in Windsor to see the Bourne ditch filled with sewage in a residential area. The south-east has suffered disproportionately; in fact, 90% of serious pollution incidents were caused by four companies, with Thames Water—the main provider in my constituency—responsible for more than 17 last year. That is inexcusable.

I welcome that Thames Water has finally announced upgrades to Slough treatment works following sewage overflows in Berkshire. They will include new tanks, new technology and a new pipeline. It now needs to be made to guarantee the planned improvement project at Slough, which will reduce future sewage spills and provide cleaner effluent entering the waterways around Eton Wick. I hope for the Minister's support to hold Thames Water to account on that. However, as others in this House have raised, such a change is a drop in the ocean since the entire infrastructure system is outdated and creaking. It needs long-term and sustained investment of tens of billions of pounds over decades, and we must face the reality that that will come only with increases to consumer bills.

If we expect the public to tolerate price increases, we need a regulator that works. In my view, Ofwat’s determination to keep bills low for consumers has exposed short-term thinking that has led only to higher bills in future. With additional funding, water companies—particularly Thames Water—must show customers that the money is going directly to infrastructure upgrades.

I am aware of my lack of time, Madam Deputy Speaker. I join with Surfers Against Sewage and River Action, which have been working with Members across this House to encourage the Government to make clean water one of Ofwat’s legal duties, and to give it the teeth it needs. I welcome the fact that this issue is being considered in the Chamber, and I hope that everybody in this House will join me in scrutinising Ofwat’s implementation of the powers granted to it in the Bill, hoping the Government will make clean water one of Ofwat’s legal duties and looking for Ministers’ support in holding Thames Water to account at the Slough sewage treatment works.

20:45

[Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)]

The water is key to Bournemouth’s appeal as the most stunningly beautiful town in our country. [Interruption.] Contentious. Unsurprisingly, Bournemouth East residents are absolutely horrified by the untreated sewage that is forced on our town. Jacqueline from Boscombe has had to make her “Wild and Free” surf therapy sessions surf-free because of sewage in the sea, meaning children and young people whose mental health could be significantly improved are let down again. Sarah from Charminster, who is a regular sea swimmer to manage her long covid symptoms, is now worried about the impact of this pollution on her health and on the natural environment. Gareth in Muscliff is clear that:

“Something really must be done about this and soon for the sake of our health and future.”

Sarah in Southbourne told me that:

“This is not the only environmental crisis that we face, but focusing on it, and ensuring improvements, would be regarded as major successes.”

While the Conservatives may have let the water companies off the hook, the public did not let the Conservatives off the hook, and at the last election we saw change. We are seeing more of that change today with this Bill, which my constituents will warmly welcome. Last week I met the people who run Holdenhurst water recycling centre to see the significant upgrades that have received nearly £30 million of investment, which I support. I have also recently met the chief executive officer of Wessex Water to discuss the pollution that we are experiencing locally, and I am pleased to see significant investments that will improve Bournemouth’s ability to manage the automatic operation of storm overflows. However, we can do more. We can change how we see storm overflows so that we no longer see them as a sewage problem; we instead can see them as a rain management problem. If we reimagine rainwater as a resource to be captured where it lands, reused wherever possible and removed from foul water sewage heading to the water recycling centre, we can do a better job.

I welcome the Bill because it will give the Environment Agency and Ofwat, which are central to protecting our waterways, the powers and the support that they need. The EA will now have new powers to bring forward criminal charges against law-breaking water executives, and water companies will now bear the costs of enforcement action taken in response to their failings. The introduction of fixed and automatic penalties will make it quicker and easier for the EA to fine water companies that commit offences. Furthermore, for the first time there will be a requirement to publish real-time data on all emergency overflows, so that the public and regulators can see what is actually going on.

I close by paying tribute to the work of Surfers Against Sewage, and to Christchurch Harbour and Marine Society and Vanessa Ricketts, who have done so much locally to hold the hope while we waited for a new Government to bring forward this Bill. I am proud that this Labour Government are committed to cleaning up the mess that the Conservatives let our waterways become. The Bill is the first step towards doing that.

20:48

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

Rivers are the natural veins of Britain, with the lifeblood of our ecosystems flowing through them. No matter their width, depth or length, we derive so much from our rivers. Yet according to research from the Rivers Trust, not a single stretch of river in my constituency is in good overall health. It is a tragedy as much as it is a scandal—plain and simple. The Conservative party has left a legacy of unacceptable sewage outflows into our waterways, with a total failure to limit those who were responsible for it.

My constituency has the privilege of being the home of the Leander rowing club, which enters many teams in the Henley royal regatta. In June this year, the organisers of that prestigious international event had to issue guidance to participants on how to minimise the risk of illness due to “proximity to polluted water”. That should not be happening in 2024.

When I visited the Thames Water sewage treatment works at Wargrave, I met enthusiastic and knowledgeable employees, but the scale of the neglect of our sewage treatment capacity was very clear to see. Thames Water bosses have failed to keep pace with the storm overflow problem, exacerbated by housebuilding, a failing network of pipes and climate change. Now they want to increase bills by 59%. The regulator really must not let that happen. I was left with the distinct impression at Wargrave that, sadly, the company had little idea of how to fix the problem and no expectation of doing so within a reasonable timeframe. Thames Water is currently limping from cash crisis to cash crisis, accruing billions more in debt. It seems to be getting worse before it can get better.

I am aware that I am getting near to my three minutes. Can the Minister guarantee that my constituents will not be burdened by the potential failure of Thames Water? Can the Minister explain how he intends to ensure that investment in Wokingham’s sewerage system is guaranteed?

20:51

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

South West Water discharged sewage for nearly 540,000 hours in 2023, which is apparently an 83% rise compared with 2022. It is getting so much worse. I therefore welcome the measures in the Bill. They are desperately needed and cannot come soon enough for places such as Cornwall, which have suffered from sewage spills for far too long.

We all know how important our seas and rivers are for our health and wellbeing, and for our ecosystems and our economy. In rural and coastal areas, they touch on almost every aspect of our lives. In my constituency and across Cornwall we have an amazing community of sea swimmers and surfers who brave the water all year round, but who are frequently unable to go out due to sewage alerts, or who become infected and get illnesses if they do. They have been campaigning tirelessly on water quality for years.

Constituents write to me daily about sewage spills on our beaches. In the 2024 annual bathing water classifications released a few weeks ago, Porthluney in my constituency had its water quality designated as poor. During Storm Bert, sewage overflows were recorded in the River Carnon, River Penryn, Pill Creek, River Fal and many other rivers in my constituency. It affects not just our residents but our visitors too. Tourism is important to Cornwall. People come from all over the world to visit our coastline, but they are deterred when they see raw sewage on the beaches. Sewage dumping in the River Fal is part of what is destroying traditional industries such as the shellfish industry. In May 2023, 11 shellfish sites in Cornwall were forced to close due to dangerously high levels of E. coli. We have seen problems with our infrastructure this summer. A burst water main led to a loss of water pressure across a swathe of Cornwall and many people lost their water, including the hospital. Compensation was very limited and hard to obtain.

The Bill delivers on the Government’s manifesto commitments to hold the water companies to account. It gives the Environment Agency more resource to bring criminal charges and fines, and makes them quicker and easier to enforce. The standard of proof will change and be lower, and automatic penalties will be extended. Ofwat will have greater powers to halt performance-related pay bonuses. The Bill also introduces real-time monitoring of every sewage outlet and full transparency. Along with the announcements on investment in infrastructure made in July and the upcoming comprehensive water review, the Bill forms part of a plan for a long-term fundamental comprehensive restructuring of our water industry. We will go much further. I welcome the Bill.

20:55

[Charlie Maynard (Witney) (LD)]

I believe that this Bill is disappointing. It almost totally ignores the financials of the companies, and that is the root of the problem. Unless we fix the financials, we will not fix the problem. Thames Water, for example, has £17 billion of debt, and it is currently expected to have a further £3 billion of debt by the end of January. If that happens, it will cost Thames Water an extra £334 million a year, which means that 46% of the bill of every single one of the 15 million bill payers will be funding interest payments—before the £20 billion of debt that the company will have is paid down. How does that make sense? How do we get this working again? That is not the route to a solution.

The reason Thames Water is not in special administration is that, officially, it is unable, or unlikely to be able, to pay its debts. You do not need a GCSE in business to know that if a company currently has £16 billion of debt and £1.2 billion of cash flows, it is unlikely to be able to pay its debts. I believe that our Government are running scared. They are worried about being sued by big bad American vulture investors, and that is why they are not putting Thames Water into the special administration regime—a regime that was explicitly set up for exactly this purpose. I say to the Government, “Please, do not let Ofwat approve a price rise for Thames Water. Put the company into special administration and start to deal with the problems, because we will not be able to deal with them until we deal with the financials.”

I have one minute and 17 seconds in which to ask the Government to steal some of these ideas. Yes, they should reform the three regulators, by putting them all together. In respect of clauses 10 and 11, why should consumers pay for financial losses following Government financial assistance? Why should not creditors and shareholders pay for those losses? It seems pretty weird to me. Pollution baselines should be established for each catchment; we should get that straight. Environment Agency permits for individual sewage treatment works should be reset. The capacity for each STW should be established, and the agency’s Environment Agency 3.0 multiplier should be applied to every one of them. There should also be volumetric flow meters, for which clause 3 does not provide—we are not getting them. I invite Members to read clause 3 themselves. We are getting event duration monitors but not flow meters, and that means we are back in the same place where we have been for the last 14 years. We need flow meters, so please can we insist on that? Finally, we need to haircut the debt: we need to get that £20 billion down to £5 billion. That should be the key focus, because then we will be back on a stable footing and able to invest as we need to.

20:57

[Darren Paffey (Southampton Itchen) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to welcome this much-needed legislation. A couple of weeks ago, I visited Bitterne Park primary school, which is just across the River Itchen from Southern Water’s treatment works. I met the school’s Eco Warriors, an inspiring group of schoolchildren who are passionate about improving their environment. They told me that the stench from the treatment works sometimes makes them feel so ill that they cannot play outside at lunchtime. That is what happens when there are more than 1,000 hours of sewage dumping, as there were last year alone—a 350% increase on the year before. Those children expressed their outrage, and their desire for change, in a way that grown-ups are often less good at. Let us be clear: this is not something that our children should have to accept as normal. That is why I am campaigning for bathing water status for the Itchen, and I would like to work with Ministers to see how we can clean up the river and achieve that.

This is a big local issue, and one that I am determined to try to help resolve, but—as has been made plain by the excellent contributions of other Members—there is no doubt that it is also a national issue, and that private water companies have been treating our rivers with utter contempt. Let us not forget how we got here: 14 years of Conservative failure have left us with crumbling water infrastructure and record levels of pollution. That is the legacy. Instead of addressing the crisis, Conservative Ministers buried the scale of the problem, hiding sewage data and shielding water companies from scrutiny. That is why I welcome the tough new penalties in the Bill, which will ban unjustifiable and undeserved bonuses.

We have seen and heard how water companies have piled up debt and demanded bail-outs from the taxpayer, all the while paying bumper bonuses—more than £41 million since 2020—to executives who fail to meet the most basic standards of competence. Meanwhile, it is my constituents and those of other colleagues here who have paid the price—in higher water bills, and in the frustration of seeing a river that they treasure polluted by negligence. The Bill draws a line under those wasted years. That is what we mean when we say we are a Government of service, because we are not afraid to stand up to corporate interests. We are here in service of the British people. That means long-term investment in our water networks and ensuring that every penny spent benefits customers and the environment, not just shareholders.

I am grateful to the groups that have campaigned to keep these issues on the agenda. Now it is over to this Government of service to finish the job and hold those responsible to account.

21:00

[Manuela Perteghella (Stratford-on-Avon) (LD)]

I declare an interest: my spouse is a water economist.

As we have heard from many hon. Members this evening, urgent action is needed to clean up our rivers and waterways, including the Avon, Alne, Arrow and Stour in my constituency of Stratford-on-Avon. Those rivers and brooks are central to our communities, our local environment and wildlife, and our sporting and recreational activities, yet they are being poisoned. Water is a common good, and the water companies, including Severn Trent Water, have shown utter disregard for our most precious natural resource. This Bill is a welcome step, but much more needs to be done.

Across the UK, untreated sewage was discharged more than 600,000 times last year. It is a national disgrace. In my constituency, spills happened for a total duration of nearly 16,700 hours in 2023. I thank the citizen science champions in my constituency and the many campaign groups, from Shipstone and Stratford to Bidford and Alcester, for shining a light on this crisis. Without their tireless work, much of the devastation would remain hidden. I also pay tribute to our many rural communities, who have experienced repeated sewage flooding and are literally left to clean up the mess.

Although residents stepped up, the previous Conservative Government failed to hold the water companies to account. Shareholder profits should not be prioritised over public health and environmental protection. I urge the Government to consider the Liberal Democrats’ proposal to abolish Ofwat and replace it with a clean water authority that has real teeth—a regulator that focuses on environmental performance, demands real-time sewage pollution data, and enforces legally binding targets to eliminate sewage spills by 2030. The Bill must also mandate investment in sewage and drainage infrastructure.

This Bill is a chance to take real, systemic action to clean up our waterways. However, the Government must strengthen the proposed legislation in more radical ways so that we can give our constituents the clean and thriving waterways they all deserve.

21:02

[David Burton-Sampson (Southend West and Leigh) (Lab)]

According to the latest Government figures, the number of sewage dumps along my constituency’s small coastline rose from 100 in 2022 to 206 last year—a more than 100% increase. Across the country, this is the legacy of the last Conservative Government. They failed to get to grips with holding our water companies to account, and we and our constituents have suffered, with polluted waterways causing swimmers and those taking part in water sports to become ill—never mind the impact it has had on the natural environment. I am told by Anglian Water that the sewage dumping figures will be significantly lower in 2024, but we will wait to see them published. An immediate positive move by this Labour Government has been to require real-time monitoring, so that the public and the regulators have full transparency on where water spills are happening within an hour of them happening. There will be nowhere to hide.

In Southend, both I and my hon. Friend the Member for Southend East and Rochford (Mr Alaba) have recommenced holding water quality summits. They are a means of bringing together stakeholders and interested members of the public to discuss current issues and challenges, from pollution and sewage dumps to regular flooding. I hope our water quality summits will serve as a good exemplar of how the proposed new customer panels could work across the country.

My Conservative predecessor, the former MP for Southend West, had the right intentions when she started the local water summits during her term. However, she was restricted by the failure of her own Government to put in place sufficient regulation and consequences for the water companies to really fix this issue. In October 2021, the Conservatives voted against a Lords amendment to the Environment Bill that would have placed a legal duty on water companies to reduce sewage discharges into our rivers. In January last year, 292 Conservatives—ironically including my predecessor—voted to give water companies 15 years to clean up their act as part of the environment targets regulations. Yes, 15 years!

Having run my own business and worked in senior roles in other businesses, I know the standards required to consider awarding bonuses. Underperforming on a key metric would not, and should not, be overlooked when considering the payment of bonuses. The same will now properly apply to the water industry, and so it should. I am proud of this Bill and I am proud to support it. The Labour Government have done more in our first few months to tackle this scourge than the Conservatives did in the last 14 years. This Government are serious about bringing the change that is so urgently needed to end the scandal of water pollution once and for all.

21:06

[Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)]

Few of the natural features of the Taunton and Wellington constituency in Somerset are as valued as the River Tone, which goes through the constituency. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron), I welcome this Bill but wish it would go further. In particular, we need a much stronger regulator. As long as Ofwat has a duty to protect profits and returns for shareholders but not to protect the environment, it will be more of a tame kitten than a watchdog. When it comes to managing the quality of our water and our waterways, profiteering surely has no place in the equation, which is why we want to see privatised water companies replaced with not-for-profit companies, which work very effectively in Denmark. Water companies also need to be held to account for longer when it comes to investing in the infrastructure that is needed.

From preparing and submitting its bathing water status application—with a lot of support from the hard-working volunteers of the Friends of French Weir Park—I know how much goes into designating a bathing water such as the Tone in Taunton. I therefore urge the Minister, in the context of the ongoing parallel bathing water consultation—to completely end automatic de-designation after five years. Wessex Water and the Environment Agency have made it clear that we can get improvements in water quality in the Tone in five years—and who would disagree with improving the tone, Madam Deputy Speaker?—but they are unlikely to be enough to protect its designation unless more time is available.

We in Taunton also strongly disagree with making new designations dependent on already having sufficiently clean bathing water quality. The whole reason that communities are seeking to get their designations is to stimulate that improvement. As Surfers Against Sewage has pointed out, making quality a prerequisite rather than the goal to be established would have prevented almost all the current inland bathing waters from being designated. Also, we would oppose allowing bathing seasons to be curtailed. I hope the Minister will also say something about bringing in water restoration grants, which would have the dual advantages of supporting the drive to eliminate phosphates from the Somerset levels and moors and improving river and bathing water quality.

Having canvassed the views of my fellow swimmers the other day, I know how much people want to see the river improved. We therefore need to give rural communities the support they need for water restoration. We need to establish a tough regulator bound by legal duties to protect the environment, not just profits, and give bathing waters enough time to be brought up to standard without the threat of de-designation and being pushed into the “too difficult” pile. Our rivers and our environment—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. I call Julie Minns.

14:30

[Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)]

On the eve of this year’s general election, hundreds of Carlisle residents woke to find that brown water was coming out of their taps. Some might describe the stained water as a metaphor for 14 years of Conservative failure but, for most of my residents, it was just another reminder of the poor service they have had to endure from the local water company. Indeed, in the last two weeks alone, there have been 56 sewage discharges within a 5-mile radius of Carlisle, lasting a total of 152 hours.

This not only has the impact of harming local wildlife, as we have already heard this evening, but it also makes our rivers a no-go zone for locals. As someone who enjoys cold-water swimming, I find it a tragedy that our rivers, which have defined our great border city for centuries, have been reduced to the personal polluting pools of United Utilities.

Yet our system rewards this behaviour. Just last month, the company announced hundreds of millions in profit while seeking to further increase customer bills by an astounding 32%. Bonuses just shy of £1.5 million were doled out to two executives, on top of salaries already topping £1 million. This is the state of water regulation in this country—one where polluting, not the polluter, pays.

At least, that was the state of affairs under the previous Government, but not any more. I am delighted that this Bill is giving us the powers finally to hold the water companies to account, finally to block bonuses to underperforming water bosses, finally to levy fines that genuinely deter polluting our waterways, and finally to stop these companies marking their own homework by introducing proper independent monitoring of every outlet.

The water industry was a wild west under the last Government, and I for one am delighted that there is a new sheriff in town.

21:12

[Josh Fenton-Glynn (Calder Valley) (Lab)]

I welcome this legislation and this debate. Nothing typifies this Government’s job of cleaning up the mess left after 14 years of the last lot than the need to clean sewage out of our rivers.

The need in Yorkshire is greater than in many other places. Yorkshire Water holds one of the worst records for sewage discharges among water companies. Last year, it spilled sewage into rivers across our region 464,056 times. Of those, a staggering 4,125 discharges were into the River Calder, which runs through my Calder Valley constituency, making it one of the most dumped-in rivers in the country. Both numbers had increased since the previous year, yet Nicola Shaw, the chief executive of Yorkshire Water, took home just over £1 million in remuneration, £300,000 of which was a bonus. To put that in context, she earned £2.22 per sewage spill into a Yorkshire river last year. If that is a reward for good performance, one dreads to think what poor performance looks like.

In Calder Valley, and across the country, we have had enough, and this Bill rightly reflects that. This Bill gives us an opportunity to hold water bosses and their companies to account, not only through fines and clear regulations but through measures that will allow the criminal prosecution of irresponsible bosses.

I welcome this Bill, but I also recognise that it is just a start, an opening step to get our water system back on track. As we continue with our whole-system review, I hope Ministers will also look at the broader impact of water companies, including the cavalier way in which they dig up our roads for weeks on end. Indeed, a road in Hebden Bridge and Todmorden has been dug up to mend a sewer, but businesses are suffering while little work is done over the weekend. More pertinently, in Calder Valley early results from studies by Yorkshire Water into what it can do to alleviate flooding show that in areas like mine, water companies and their assets have a real impact on flooding, so I hope my hon. Friends on the Front Bench will consider looking at the broader role of water companies.

In closing, after 14 years of Tory failure polluting rivers across Calder Valley, I am proud to support the Bill and end the sewage scandal. We are serious about our environment, getting our country back on track and cleaning up the mess left by the Opposition.

21:15

[Julia Buckley (Shrewsbury) (Lab)]

In my rural constituency of Shrewsbury, we have England’s longest river, the magnificent Severn. It flows through our historic town centre and meanders through our outlying villages, but my constituents are running out of patience with the current privatised water company, Severn Trent Water. It is failing its customers, failing the environment and, according to last week’s “Panorama”, failing financially.

Under the last Government, the whole water industry became a haven for profiteering. In the last four years, the boss of Severn Trent Water has been paid £13 million for “performance related pay”, yet in 2023 there were over 2,000 incidents of sewage dumping in my constituency alone—an increase of 42% on the previous year. My residents have their own words for that kind of performance, and they are not pretty.

To top that off, we have now heard that customers’ bills are set to rise by 46% over the next five years. This is supposedly justified by investment in the long overdue infrastructure upgrades that we need in order to reduce the sewage pollution spills into our rivers. However, companies continue pay out dividends to their shareholders, while customers are aggrieved because they have been paying out for years while the pollution went ahead. Quite rightly, customers feel that they are paying twice to solve the problem. Has there ever been a worse case of paying more and getting less?

Although we in this House welcome today’s watershed Bill, our residents are much more concerned with a different bill: the average annual water bill for Severn Trent Water customers is set to rise from £439 to £580. That is not acceptable and will be unaffordable for many, but it is also terrible value for money, given the disgraceful pollution of our river that has seen not just public health problems from infections as serious as E. coli, but devastating impacts on our ecology, including depleted fish, birds and flora along the banks of our river, which is now strewn with wet wipes and sanitary products instead of wildlife.

In Shrewsbury we have a very large and active campaign group called Up Sewage Creek, which is ably led by Claire Kirby. Many of the group are citizen scientists who give up their time to test the water quality and highlight the deterioration of our most prized asset. On behalf of my frustrated residents and our otherwise beautiful river, I urge the Minister to not only bring forward the criminal sanctions and stronger regulation in the Water (Special Measures) Bill, but to ensure that the independent water commission into the water sector holds no bars in its examination of the privatised water industry, and explores all avenues to clean up our water and shake up the sector.

21:18

[Dan Aldridge (Weston-super-Mare) (Lab)]

The protection of our beaches, rivers and bathing waters is incredibly important to my constituency, as hon. Members may expect me to say, as I represent a coastal constituency. My friends, family and I are regular swimmers in Weston-super-Mare’s fantastic Marine Lake, so my interest is personal as well as professional.

Marine Lake is a 200-metre infinity lake, said to be the largest of its kind in the world. It is a phenomenal asset to our community and I am proud of the work of so many to restore it over recent years. Having Marine Lake in Weston means that despite us having the second highest tidal range in the world—finding the sea in Weston can sometimes be a bit tricky—we have access to bathing water whenever we need it. So many people from across the country have memories of spending summers on the beach, with ice cream, fish and chips and swimming in the sea, creating memories with family and friends; that is part of the very fabric of our town.

In recent years the decline in water quality has damaged that fabric, and compromised access and enjoyment. As the previous Government left office, the number of bathing waters classified as poor across the UK was at a record high. Distressingly, that still includes Weston, Uphill and Sand Bay beaches—that has a profound impact on our town. There is so much anxiety among local residents and businesses about something that we should have certainty about: that it is safe to swim in our bathing waters. Many have also experienced the negative impact that it has had on tourism and hospitality—a vital source of employment to so many in Weston. The degradation of water quality in recent years must be reversed. Towns like mine need this Government to deliver where the previous Government did not.

I am grateful for the investigations by the Environment Agency and the local bathing water steering group of the causes of the poor water quality, but there is still no smoking gun. I have been reassured that over the next 12 months those investigations will be ramped up to investigate sewage from Avonmouth as the possible cause, but time is critical, and the need of my constituents for answers and swift action cannot be overstated. I have written to the Minister to outline the urgency, and request the boldest action for Weston-super-Mare.

I pay tribute to the amazing work of volunteers in Weston—first, the legendary Debbie Apted of Cleaner Coastlines. Debbie has been a personal inspiration for years because of her tireless advocacy, evidence-led approach and ability to motivate a community to action. I also pay tribute to the fantastic Mudlarks community, who work so hard to maintain Marine Lake, and the litter pickers such as Sophie and Jules from Sophie’s Super Litter Picking, and the many individuals who walk our streets and coastline daily to prevent rubbish from ending up in our waterways.

The Bill is so welcome in Weston, and I am especially pleased to see how quickly the Government have acted on this issue. It is clear to me and many campaigners in my constituency that stronger powers to properly hold water companies to account is critical if we are to change behaviour and get them to do their job. I am hopeful that, along with cleaning up our bathing waters, the Bill will go a long way towards restoring the trust that has been so sadly lost.

21:21

[Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)]

Anyone who has visited Shipley will know that the River Aire and the River Wharfe flow through the beautiful dales countryside of my Yorkshire constituency, and indeed that of my neighbour, the hon. Member for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore). I grew up paddling in the Wharfe, and as an adult I enjoy a regular dip. It was therefore a bit of a shock to learn that raw sewage was being regularly dumped in our rivers—some 1,753 times in 2023. I do not think that that is quite top of the poops, but it is not far off.

I pay tribute to the local activists who have done so much to expose this scandal and campaign to protect our environment. The Ilkley Clean River Group has been at the forefront of the campaign to end the sewage scandal. Formed in 2018, through citizen science it has shown that untreated sewage was being dumped in our rivers even at times of low rainfall. The group worked very hard to secure bathing status in 2020—the Wharfe was the first river to do so in the UK—and the group highlighted the public health risk to bathers, but it should not have needed brave local residents to challenge the water companies. The regulators have failed in their job. That is why I am so proud that the Bill will require more frequent and accurate monitoring, and introduce fixed monetary penalties so that companies do not get away with it any longer.

Under the last Government, our water was catastrophically mismanaged. Regulation was weakened, there was a failure to invest in infrastructure, and record levels of sewage were pumped into our rivers and seas. Meanwhile, bosses creamed off the profits and paid themselves in bonuses. Along with others, I call on the Yorkshire Water chief executive officer to hand back her £371,000 bonus. It is clear that change is needed, and change is coming with the Bill. It is long overdue that water companies are held to account and that we put in place the mechanisms to restrict executive bonuses. Many of my constituents, though, feel dismayed that it falls on them to pay the price, quite literally, for water companies’ failures. Customer bills are due to rise 18% next year in the Shipley constituency. Despite having no debt when privatised in 1990, Yorkshire Water has since accrued £6.5 billion of debt; today 19% of customer bills are spent just on servicing that debt.

Under-investment has left my constituency with creaking infrastructure, high bills and polluted rivers. I am pleased that the Government have set up an independent commission on water. To undertake fundamental reform, it is vital that that includes in-depth analysis of the finances and governance structures. Our once beautiful rivers, such as the Wharfe and Aire, are now awash with sewage, and our water infrastructure is leaking. I welcome the Bill, and the measures that it sets out to deal with the crisis in our water industry.

21:24

[Gareth Snell (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

I rise to support the Bill because we basically live in a monopoly. We live in a situation where a group of companies control an incredibly essential part of everyday life—a part that we need. As a consumer, if I do not like the service I receive, I can go somewhere else; I cannot do that with water. If I want to shop around for a better deal, I can do that; I cannot do that with water. The water companies know that—they know that they hold a monopoly on the service they provide—so they think they can get away with raising bills, failing to invest, and ploughing money into shares and dividends. Their time has come, and the Bill is apt. The new Government is providing new opportunities to change the way in which we look at water and consider it as a fundamental part of everyday life.

But as I have been listening to the debate this afternoon, I started to wonder whether the Bill is actually needed, because if we listen to the hon. Members for South Northamptonshire (Sarah Bool) or for Exmouth and Exeter East (David Reed), apparently everything in the Bill has already been done, and we are fine. I struggled to reconcile what the right hon. Member for Louth and Horncastle (Victoria Atkins) said in her opening speech—about this Government copying what the previous Government did in the Environment Act—with the rather gory descriptions of the effluence and other material found in waterways across the country.

I represent Stoke-on-Trent—the clue is in the name; it is the river on which we sit—and I know thousands of hours of sewage have been discharged into that river. Equivalent amounts of sewage are also being pumped into places like the Fowlea brook and the Lyme brook by a water company that is seemingly more worried about protecting its dividends than the health of the people I have been sent here to represent.

How did we get to this point, if everything the last Government did was apparently fine? The hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron) summed it up perfectly when he talked about the importance of regulation. Actually, we have gap when it comes to regulation—it is an enforcement gap. We have great regulation on paper that says, “You will do this, and this will happen” and “There will be penalties and fines”, but the previous Government systematically over time reduced the amount of funding available to the regulatory organisations, so that their enforcement became reactionary to events. According to the Conservatives, the reason why we have 100% monitoring of discharges is not because of some benevolent act by a party that cared about the environment; it is because the previous Government got bored and tired of the community groups around the country campaigning on the issue, and they thought, “We’ll do something about it.” I find it no coincidence that that happened this year—in an election year.

I hope that the Minister will talk more about how regulatory enforcement will happen, and about how we will provide the powers and the money that are needed.

21:27

[Lizzi Collinge (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Lab)]

I represent Morecambe and Lunesdale, where beauty surrounds and health abounds. It is the home of Morecambe bay and the River Lune—just two of the fantastic waterways that contribute to the health and enjoyment of my constituents. However, under the last Conservative Government, those waterways have been filled with pollution. Earlier, the shadow Minister, the right hon. Member for Louth and Horncastle (Victoria Atkins), mentioned wanting some facts. Well, here’s a fact for her: in 2023 alone, Morecambe and Lunesdale saw 13,500 hours of sewage discharges. That this was allowed to happen is an absolute scandal. Water bosses were allowed to walk off with huge bonuses while people in Morecambe bay found themselves swimming in raw sewage. Again and again, the law has been flouted by water companies and not enforced by the Conservatives, but now we have a Labour Government who will not only enforce the law, but strengthen it.

Morecambe bay is an ecologically special place. It is a site of special scientific interest and a bird watcher’s paradise, as a sanctuary for over 240,000 birds each year. Unfortunately, we do not have time for all the interesting bird facts that I prepared. [Hon. Members: “Ah!”] In Arnside and Silverdale, we have—

[Josh Fenton-Glynn]

Will my hon. Friend tell me about her local aviary life?

[Lizzi Collinge]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. Between March and July, rare and declining bird nesting species, such as the ringed plover, oystercatchers and the Arctic tern lay their eggs on Morecambe bay’s shores. Morecambe bay is also a vital stopover point for migrating birds, offering them a place to rest and refuel. Little terns, with their distinctive face-markings and beaks, will travel 20,000 miles on their migratory journeys so that they can breed in Morecambe bay. In Arnside and Silverdale, we have our beautiful natural landscape and wetlands, which are home to diverse wildlife. Those habitats rely on robust water quality standards to thrive, making the provisions in the Bill absolutely crucial for my constituency.

My constituents have made it clear to me that they expect the Government to take action where the Conservatives failed. The Bill’s key measures include blocking executive bonuses for companies that pollute our waterways, imposing automatic fines for offences, prosecuting company directors for negligence, and mandating the real-time monitoring of overflows. The Bill also requires companies to publish annual pollution reduction plans, and strengthens oversight by regulators. Only through those measures can we protect waterways and keep Morecambe bay and the River Lune clean for future generations. I urge colleagues across the Chamber to support the Bill.

21:30

[Mr Bayo Alaba (Southend East and Rochford) (Lab)]

I am so pleased to be here to discuss the Bill. Water quality is one of the biggest issues facing residents across my constituency, particularly in relation to pollution levels, and under-investment in infrastructure has reduced flood resilience in our residential areas. In Southend, our beaches have lost some of their blue flags in recent months, particularly in Thorpe bay, because of surface water drainage issues. Constituents experiencing significant flooding every time there is increased rainfall. Some constituents living around the Thorpe Hall Avenue area have tried to sell up, and have been forced to sell for up to 15% below the market value as a direct consequence of flooding. That is simply not good enough, and it is why I am so pleased to be here to support the most significant increase in enforcement and regulation of the water industry in a decade.

Since my election, I have co-chaired the Southend water quality summit with my good and hon. Friend the Member for Southend West and Leigh (David Burton-Sampson). We have been trying to bring all community stakeholders back together again to put additional pressure on Anglian Water. The summits are held quarterly, and are an opportunity for residents, water companies and campaign groups such as Southend Against Sewage to come together to raise issues and concerns. That model empowers communities, and I am proud that our city has been a pioneer in holding water companies to account.

After all, Southend is a coastal community, so water quality is completely intertwined with daily life. Our beautiful coastlines are a natural asset that needs to be protected—frankly, they are one of our superpowers—but, frustratingly, our water quality does not always meet the standards that residents, visitors and tourists deserve. However, the Bill means that we can look forward to clean rivers, lakes, seas and estuaries. Not only will it drive up performance by blocking bonuses for executives and imposing automatic and severe fines for those who pollute our waterways, but it will introduce criminal charges for persistent lawbreakers. In 2022, £9.7 million was paid out in executive bonuses—that is simply not good enough.

For too long, water quality and food resilience have been overlooked. Nowhere is that more apparent than in Southend-on-Sea. Suffice it to say that I wholeheartedly welcome the Bill as a first step in the transformation of the water industry.

21:33

[Ms Polly Billington (East Thanet) (Lab)]

On new year’s day, I will, like many people in Thanet, take part in a bracing dash into the sea to raise money for worthwhile causes. However, we should not take our health in our hands as we do so. Swimming should be good for you, not a risky adventure because of pollution. Good governance might seem a long way away from the delights of sea swimming, yet we cannot safely have one without the other.

Water plays such a huge role in the history and culture of East Thanet, not least because of our fantastic beaches. Margate can claim to be the first English seaside resort—I know there are others, but we are the first. For 250 years, people have come to all three of our towns in East Thanet to enjoy the stunning scenery, breathe the fabulous fresh air and swim in the sea, but as a very wise business owner in my constituency told me, “People don’t come here to paddle in poo.” That is why I and my constituents welcome this Bill, as a great starting point in cleaning up the mess that the Conservative party has left—not a figurative mess, but a literal one in our waterways. For years, the privatised water industry has been under-investing and over-polluting while paying itself millions of pounds in bonuses. That is why the action that the Government are taking through this Bill is extremely welcome and long needed.

Residents in Broadstairs have had to cope with their water being off during a red warning for extreme heat and in the middle of winter in the run-up to Christmas, managing on bottled water, because of infrastructure failures. Bills are up, the quality of service is down, the environment is in ruins, and big bonuses fuelled by gorging on debt are being paid. The water companies argue that they may need to pay more in salary bonuses to get the best people in—well, if this is the best they can get, I will be asking for my money back. We need a fundamental change in the way our water system is run, and critically, we need more accountability to bring that change about.

I know that the Secretary of State does not want to be spending his time running the water companies. I do not want him spending his time doing that either—that is not what I am suggesting. I recommend that this accountability should be local, rather than at the national level. The new independent water commission could look into how we fine water companies that break the rules by exploring the possibility of taking company stock from them instead of money. We could put any stock in a trust held on behalf of local billpayers, who would then benefit.

It may be some time before we can be confident about enjoying our waters again—some time before our rivers and seas are restored to full health—but I believe this Bill will start the process of cleaning up our water industry. It is crucial that we get the future governance right, so that our constituents can feel confident that paddling in poo is a thing of the past.

21:36

[John Whitby (Derbyshire Dales) (Lab)]

Last year, Derbyshire Dales had the 32nd highest number of sewage dumps out of our 650 constituencies. Shockingly, the number of sewage dumps increased by 26% between 2022 and 2023, with sewage spills in Derbyshire Dales lasting a staggering 28,488 hours. That is equivalent to 3.3 years of continuous pollution. It is clear that the previous Government failed to protect our water and, in doing so, endangered the environment, local industries and human health.

Much of Derbyshire Dales lies within the Peak District national park, which is renowned for its stunning scenery and landscapes. However, high levels of pollution are threatening the biodiversity of England’s national parks: as of today, only 39% of rivers and 15% of lakes within those parks remain in an ecologically healthy state. In Derbyshire Dales, that pollution is damaging some of our most scenic rivers; for example, just 6% of the surface water of the River Dove currently meets good ecological standards. Not only is that pollution a threat to biodiversity, but it is a danger to public health, as people who swim, canoe or enjoy recreational activities in these waters risk becoming ill if they are exposed to contaminated water. Recently, I witnessed this problem at first hand when I visited the River Derwent with Paddle UK.

The Water (Special Measures) Bill introduces long-overdue reforms to address this crisis. First, it bans bonuses for water company executives who fail to protect the environment and consumers. It is a disgrace that, since 2020, these executives have received £41 million in bonuses, benefits and incentives while water bills have soared and pollution levels have remained unacceptably high.

Secondly, the Bill strengthens the Environment Agency’s powers to hold lawbreaking water executives accountable —it is shocking that only five individuals have been prosecuted by the EA to date. I welcome the fact that the Bill is lowering the burden of proof required for the Environment Agency to impose fixed penalty notices from beyond reasonable doubt to the balance of probability. This will help to ensure that those who pollute our waters pay the price for doing so.

Thirdly, the Bill introduces automatic and severe fines for water companies that commit offences such as polluting or failing to meet reporting requirements. The message the Government are sending is clear: “If you pollute, expect to pay.” Alongside this Bill, I welcome the fact that the Government have established an independent commission into the water sector, and I look forward to seeing what further recommendations the commission brings forward to help ensure that our waters become clear, safe and healthy.

The people of Derbyshire Dales deserve better. They deserve rivers, lakes and waterways free from pollution. This Bill represents a critical step towards addressing these matters, and I urge all Members to support it.

21:39

[Dr Neil Hudson (Epping Forest) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to wind up for His Majesty’s loyal Opposition in what has been a comprehensive debate tonight. I want to thank all Members, who have made so many interesting points across the House about many different aspects of policy.

The hon. Members for Reading Central (Matt Rodda) and for Hastings and Rye (Helena Dollimore) talked about water supply issues and when companies fail to deliver on their duties. The hon. Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Alison Hume) talked about the fantastic Wave Project helping young people with their mental health in her constituency. The hon. Member for Shrewsbury (Julia Buckley) raved about the magnificent Severn, and the hon. Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale (Lizzi Collinge) waxed lyrical about her local birdlife.

My hon. Friend the Member for Beaconsfield (Joy Morrissey) talked about the importance of monitoring and of a holistic approach to water management, as was echoed by my hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Alison Griffiths). My hon. Friend the Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Blake Stephenson) talked about the importance of fit-for-purpose water infrastructure for new developments. My hon. Friend the Member for South Northamptonshire (Sarah Bool) eloquently articulated the issues with our Victorian sewage network and about the importance of the water restoration fund. My hon. Friends the Members for Exmouth and Exeter East (David Reed) and for Windsor (Jack Rankin) are proud advocates for standing up for water quality for their constituents.

As for those in the party sitting to my left, the Lib Dems seem to airbrush themselves out of Government history and seem to forget that they were in coalition Government for some five years. May I gently remind the Liberal Democrats that they actually had a Water Minister in that coalition Government who did absolutely nothing on this issue when they were in power? They pivot and posture as the party of protest, jumping on their stand-up paddleboard bandwagon, but far from being concerned about water quality and safety, they appear more than happy to strap on their wetsuits and dive headfirst under the water.

The amendments to the Environment Bill in the last Parliament that Labour and the Liberal Democrats voted for would actually have cost in excess of £300 billion to rebuild the entire Victorian sewage and drainage systems. That was completely unaffordable, and it would have put up taxpayers’ water bills by hundreds of pounds each year. They did not tell the public that when they cast their smears on Conservative MPs and peers who voted for sensible, costed plans to realistically address the sewage situation, but they never let the truth get in the way of stand-up paddleboard bandwagons.

Water quality and how sewage is dealt with are of vital importance to all our constituents right across the House, and we on this side—the Conservatives—are proud that we were the party that began the process of addressing this while in government. What we can now see with this new Labour Government is an attempt to copy and paste many of our Conservative achievements and plans, rebadging them as their own. It is an interesting approach and a recurrent theme. They opposed and blocked all of our plans when in opposition, and now they are scrabbling around and trying to say that they agreed with our plans all along. In fact, just look what the Government have been saying this week about the Conservative-delivered comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership, which Labour now thinks is the best thing since sliced bread, having distanced themselves from it when they were in opposition. That is the theme of this new Government.

The Labour manifesto promised to put failing water companies under special measures to clean up water and clean up our rivers that have been polluted by illegal sewage dumping. Now it is Labour Members’ turn in government to deliver on these promises to ensure that these are not more broken promises, such as their heartless family farm tax, which they promised they would not do and then cruelly went on to do, or their promise not to raise national insurance.

I note that we would not be talking about this issue today, or we would be talking about a worse situation, had it not been for the previous Conservative Government being the first to investigate the problem, grasp the nettle and meet the ambitious pledge to ensure that 100% of storm overflows are monitored, so that we could get accurate data on what is being put into our waterways. Without that, we would need to do far more groundwork to start determining what we need to do. We must remember that the last time Labour was in charge of DEFRA in England, when it left office in 2010, only 7% of storm overflows were being monitored, compared with 100% when the Conservatives left office. It was left for us to sort and improve monitoring, so that we can have an accurate view of what is happening—an evidence base for policy making, rather than poking around in the dark under Labour.

I really hope that Labour does not break its promises to improve water quality in England, because the story in Labour-run Wales is sub-optimal to say the least. In 2022, the average number of spills from storm overflows was two thirds higher in Labour-run Wales than in England—not exactly the best blueprint for government that Labour at Westminster said it would emulate. Some 92% of English bathing waters meet water quality standards, but that still needs to be higher and we look forward to the new Government detailing their plans to achieve better results.

We have heard from many Members about Thames Water, which is a notable, critical issue at this moment, but so far Labour has failed to come up with a clear plan for how it will address that and protect both the bill payer and the broader taxpayer. The Labour Government are promising to review the water system, with more reviews and more reboots, but what they should be doing is rolling their sleeves up and continuing the progress that the Conservatives started. That progress includes our landmark Environment Act 2021, delivering our plan for cutting plastic pollution and holding water companies to account; our work on measuring storm overflows; our ambitious “Plan for Water”; and strong action on water companies that were illegally dumping sewage into our waters—we have heard a lot about that tonight. That has included quadrupling water company inspections, meaning a pathway to 4,000 inspections a year by April 2025, and 10,000 a year from April 2026. That was part of our plan to crack down on poor-performing water companies.

We banned bonuses for the bosses of water companies that have committed criminal breaches, so that polluting our waters is not rewarded—a Conservative measure that this Bill copies. We also fast-tracked £180 million of investment from water companies to prevent more than 8,000 sewage spills this year, and stepped up requirements on water companies to increase investment in water infrastructure, with a commitment upwards of £60 billion over the next 25 years. We put pressure on those companies. We also prosecuted water companies that illegally pollute our rivers, making it clear that polluters must pay for damage to our natural environment. We tried to give more teeth to the regulator, Ofwat, and to the enforcer, the Environment Agency.

Let me touch briefly on the Bill’s passage in the other place. Our colleagues there tabled amendments to the Bill that we are happy were accepted, but we were disappointed that amendment 51, tabled by Lord Roborough, did not pass. It would have stopped customers across the country having their bills increased in the event of a water company being put into special measures. Under the current Bill, if a company in one part of the country is placed in special measures and costs are incurred, consumers in the rest of the country may still be liable to pay for it, despite not using the company that has been placed in special measures. The amendment would have provided a significant improvement to the Bill, and in Committee we will be asking Labour to think carefully about amendments to improve the legislation. It was disappointing that when the Labour Minister in the other place was asked about amendment 51, she failed to commit to protecting consumers from higher bills if a water company goes under.

Our Conservative colleagues in the other place also worked hard to bolster important nature-based solutions, and we are glad that the Government listened to them. We will look to strengthen that, along with the important role of the Water Restoration Fund.

His Majesty’s loyal Opposition will support this Bill on Second Reading, and we will look to improve it in Committee, as our Conservative colleagues did in the other place. We will scrutinise the Bill as it goes through the rest of the legislative process, to ensure that it can be the best for all our constituents right across the House. This Bill must function in the way that the British public expect, to continue the work to clean up our British waters. The strong action that began under the Conservatives to improve our waters needs to be upheld by this new Labour Government.

21:50

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Hardy)]

I thank all Members who have participated in today’s debate; it has been a privilege to listen to the thoughtful and varied contributions made by colleagues across the House. I am sorry that, because there were just so many of them, I will be unable to refer to each one individually. However, I add my thanks to the citizen scientists in many constituencies who have been mentioned. I thank the school eco clubs, which have also had a mention, all the workers out there and the regulators. I state my recognition of the impact that sewage pollution has not just on the environment, but on tourism and local businesses. May I say how impressed I am by the number of Members who go wild swimming? I add my mum to the list of people who love doing that.

I must confess that, with nine days to Christmas, my love of Christmas may shine through in these closing remarks. I believe I might even have detected just a sprinkling of Christmas magic in the air, because what other explanation can there possibly be for all the unity we have heard across the Chamber? Nobody is telling us that they want the status quo, everybody thinks the situation has got worse, and through the many conversations I have had as Minister, I know that those opinions are shared by investors, environmental groups, the general public and even the water companies themselves.

I know, like all Members here, that all I want for Christmas are cleaner rivers, lakes and seas. In fact, as I think back to last Christmas, I believe that the public had almost given up hope. Our rivers, lakes and seas were polluted, bonuses were being awarded to polluting water bosses, wrongdoing was often going unpunished, and overseeing that failure were a tired Government who had run out of ideas. Then, something great happened: the wonderful people of our country elected a Labour Government. That Labour Government immediately got to work drafting this Water (Special Measures) Bill, along with a water commission to fundamentally transform our water sector for decades to come. It will prove that we did not need a Christmas miracle to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas; we just needed a Labour Government. The Bill will drive meaningful improvements in the performance and culture of the water industry as part of a wider effort to ensure that water companies deliver for customers and the environment.

During the debate, I have been making a list, checking it twice, and I would like to respond to some of the main points made. On the scope of the Bill, reform and wider issues, Members across the House have spoken about the need for more radical reform and raised concerns about wider quality issues. This Bill is intentionally narrow. We are focused on improving the performance and culture of the water industry as an urgent priority, ahead of the forthcoming £88 billion of investment in the 2024 price review. Many Members spoke about the need to hold companies to account, and the measures in the Bill do just that.

However, we know that this Bill alone will not be enough to fix our water system; we know that we need to go further. That is why we have launched the independent commission, which will look at the roles and responsibilities of the regulator among many other fundamental aspects of the water sector. All Members are invited to participate in the call for evidence in the new year. Many Members have also spoken about our precious chalk streams. The Government are committed to the protection and restoration of our cherished chalk streams, and the best way to achieve that is by fixing the framework for managing our water system, as we are doing through the commission.

Some Members expressed concerns about the timing of the commission. I reassure the House that the commission will publish a report in quarter 2 of 2025, with recommendations for actionable solutions to the sector’s problems, which will inform further legislation to transform our water industry.

A few hon. Members mentioned that nationalisation was not in the Bill’s scope. To give the short answer, that would be complex and time-consuming, would halt the investment needed—we would lose £88 billion of private investment—and would do nothing to stop sewage pollution.

Many hon. Members have spoken about the need for our regulator to be properly equipped to make use of the new powers in the Bill. As the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron) mentioned, the Environment Agency is already recruiting up to 500 additional staff for inspections, enforcement and stronger regulation of the water industry, increasing compliance checks and quadrupling the number of water company inspections by March. However, the measures in the Bill go further and will better enable the regulators to ensure that companies are held to account. The new cost recovery power in the Bill will enable the Environment Agency to fully recover the costs of its water company enforcement activities.

In addition, new automatic penalties will allow the regulators to enforce minor to moderate offences more quickly and proportionately. Collectively, these measures will complement each other to enable the regulators to address widespread water industry underperformance. We are currently looking at the water restoration fund.

On protecting customers, many hon. Members rightly pointed out that companies have not delivered for their customers. I reassure all hon. Members that the Government are clear that customers should be placed at the heart of water company operations. That is why we will bring forward secondary legislation to introduce new and increased compensation—double the previous amount or more—which will be compulsory for water companies to pay customers for poor service, underscoring our commitment to hold companies to account and stand up for customers. That work, together with measures in the Bill that elevate the voices of consumers, will ensure that water companies deliver for their customers as a priority.

On the importance of transparency, we are better equipping customers to hold water companies to account. Clause 3 will close the current monitoring gap. However, monitoring volume and concentration is much more complex, leading to significant costs and a longer roll-out time. Such additional monitoring would not be proportionate for emergency overflows because they should be used only on very limited occasions.

Before we go—I have just a couple more—driving home for Christmas, I will conclude. The Bill will deliver the most significant increase in enforcement powers for water industry regulators in a decade, including strengthening regulation to ensure that water bosses face personal criminal liability for serious lawbreaking and new powers to ban bonuses from being paid if environmental standards are not met. The Bill is not just about policy; it is about protecting consumers, safeguarding our environment and ensuring that water companies operate transparently and responsibly.

I am confident that with the collective expertise and dedication of this House, we can pass this legislation and make a real impact. That is what we promised in our manifesto, and we know how important it is to keep our promises, especially at Christmas. So, in the spirit of Christmas and the season of good will to all, I thank everyone again for their contributions and welcome the opportunity to work collaboratively with all hon. Friends and Members across the House to ensure that we get the changes needed to give the gift of clean water to future generations. Finally, on behalf of the DEFRA Bill team, we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year. I commend the Bill to the House.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time.

Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords] (Programme)

Motion made, and Question put forthwith (Standing Order No. 83A(7)),

That the following provisions shall apply to the Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords]:

Committal

(1) The Bill shall be committed to a Public Bill Committee.

Proceedings in Public Bill Committee

(2) Proceedings in the Public Bill Committee shall (so far as not previously concluded) be broughht to a conclusion on Thursday 16 January 2025.

(3) The Public Bill Committee shall have leave to sit twice on the first day on which it meets.

Proceedings on Consideration and Third Reading .

(4) Proceedings on Consideration shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion one hour before the moment of interruption on the day on which those proceedings are commenced.

(5) Proceedings on Third Reading shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion at the moment of interruption on that day.

(6) Standing Order No. 83B (Programming committees) shall not apply to proceedings on Consideration and Third Reading.

Other proceedings

(7) Any other proceedings on the Bill may be programmed.—(Christian Wakeford.)

Question agreed to.

Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords] (Ways and Means)

Motion made, and Question put forthwith (Standing Order No. 52(1)(a)),

That, for the purposes of any Act resulting from the Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords], it is expedient to authorise:

(1) any increase attributable to the Act in charges or fees payable under any other Act; and

(2) the payment of sums into the Consolidated Fund.—(Christian Wakeford.)

Question agreed to.