Oral Answers to Questions

Ellie Chowns Excerpts

Thursday 19th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Steve Reed]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on being such a champion for clean rivers in his constituency. As I said, the Bill will ban the payment of undeserved bonuses to water executives who are responsible for this kind of pollution, and will ensure instead that money is spent where it should always have been spent: on fixing the infrastructure, so that we can stop once and for all the kinds of sewage scandals that are creating the river pollution his constituents are so aghast to see on their doorstep.

[Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)]

Merry Christmas to you and your staff, Mr Speaker.

I declare an interest as co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on water pollution. While I welcome the limited measures that the Government are taking to tackle pollution from the water industry, there is an elephant in the room, because agricultural pollution is just as important a source of pollution in our rivers, lakes and seas. What will the Secretary of State do to tackle the problem of agricultural pollution with the same degree of urgency and focus, and how will he support farmers—who themselves stand ready to take action to tackle this problem—by providing the funding, support and clear regulatory enforcement that is needed for a level playing field?

[Steve Reed]

I thank the hon. Lady for raising such an important issue, and I recognise that over 40% of pollution in our waterways comes from agricultural run-off. Sir Jon Cunliffe and the commission he is leading will look at all sources of pollution into our water. The budgets for more sustainable forms of agriculture that we have committed to will seek to reduce the use of fertiliser, so that there is less run-off into our water. The farming road map that we are working on with the farming community is also intended to reduce the amount of run-off from agriculture into our waterways, and we are looking at moving to a whole catchment-based model. We are looking at all sources of pollution into water so that we can clean up all of our rivers, lakes and seas, from whatever source the pollution comes.