Water Companies

Cat Eccles Excerpts

Monday 8th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Emma Hardy]

This Government are determined to build the homes that people need. I am sure that every Member has met enough people who are living in overcrowded homes and are desperate to move somewhere else—I know I have. In fact, just on Friday, I was talking to a constituent who lived with his wife, their six-year-old daughter and their two-year-old son in a one-bedroom flat because no other alternatives were available. When we talk about objections to building homes, we never ask people living in overcrowded accommodation how they feel about the number of homes we want to build.

However, on the fundamental point of the planning system and the water companies, the hon. Member is right, and we are looking at that through the water delivery taskforce. As I have mentioned, it is important to make sure we have the water and waste water capacity to build the homes this country needs.

[Cat Eccles (Stourbridge) (Lab)]

In 2025, there were over 300,000 sewage spills into our waterways up and down the country. In March this year, a section of the Stourbridge canal had to be closed due to raw sewage spilling into the water from a broken Severn Trent pipe, killing hundreds of fish. Does the Minister accept that the current model of privatised water companies is failing to protect our natural environment, and as sewage spillages continue, how will her Department measure success in that area? If there is no improvement, when do we say enough is enough?

[Emma Hardy]

My hon. Friend raises an important issue, and I remember hearing about that incident. That is why under this Government, the Environment Agency has carried out over 10,000 inspections of water companies; under the previous Government, the figure was only 4,000, so we have increased the number of inspections. We are also introducing MOT-style inspections so that when the Environment Agency goes into a water company, it can check all the infrastructure, see where the problems are and get the company to tackle them before another awful incident such as the one my hon. Friend has described occurs, where sewage ends up in the wrong place, causing damage to our environment.