Clean Water Bill: Chalk Streams Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Lord Watts
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Clean Water Bill: Chalk Streams
Lord Watts Excerpts(2 weeks, 3 days ago)
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Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
We are investing a lot into chalk streams. As well as the £2 billion that water companies are investing over the next five years into targeted actions towards chalk stream restoration, which is part of our plan for change, we are investing £1.8 million through the water restoration fund and the water environment improvement fund for locally led chalk stream clean-up projects across affected regions. Much of that will be catchment led, because a lot of local projects are worked on right across catchments.
Lord Watts (Lab)
My Lords, does not the state of our chalk rivers demonstrate what problems were caused by a Government who did not care about the state of the rivers and a regulator that turned its back on them?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
My noble friend is absolutely right that this is a long-term problem that has been going on for many years. Unfortunately, the water industry has simply not been held to account in the way that it should have been, and that is why we are bringing in the clean water Bill and changing the regulator.