Asked by: Helena Dollimore (Labour (Co-op) - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to tackle sewage discharges by Southern Water in Hastings and Rye.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State recently met with water company bosses, including Thames Water, to make it clear that water firms will be held accountable for their performance for customers and the environment. During the meeting, water bosses signed up to the Government’s initial package of reforms to cut sewage dumping and attract investment to upgrade infrastructure.
The Government also announced a new Water (Special Measures) Bill, which will turn around the performance of water companies, in the King’s Speech. The Bill will strengthen regulation, give the water regulator new powers to ban the payment of bonuses if environmental standards are not met and increase accountability for water executives. These are the first critical steps in enabling a long-term and transformative reset of the entire water sector.
Asked by: Helena Dollimore (Labour (Co-op) - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will have discussions with Southern Water on the level of compensation due to (a) residents and (b) businesses in Hastings and Rye constituency after the loss of water supply in (i) September 2023 and (ii) May 2024.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has already met with CEOs of all 16 water companies, including Southern Water, setting out his expectations from government going forward. He will have further conversations with water company chief executives in due course, including with Southern Water, on a range of issues, and will be sure to raise the experiences of those impacted by flooding and supply interruptions and scrutinise their plans to improve.
Asked by: Helena Dollimore (Labour (Co-op) - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will have discussions with Southern Water on the level of compensation due to (a) businesses and (b) residents in Hastings and Rye constituency after two incidents of flooding in the town centre.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has already met with CEOs of all 16 water companies, including Southern Water, setting out his expectations from government going forward. He will have further conversations with water company chief executives in due course, including with Southern Water, on a range of issues, and will be sure to raise the experiences of those impacted by flooding and supply interruptions and scrutinise their plans to improve.
Asked by: Helena Dollimore (Labour (Co-op) - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Southern Water’s compensation fund for losses incurred by (a) residents and (b) businesses during the water outage in May 2024.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has already met with CEOs of all 16 water companies, including Southern Water, setting out his expectations from government going forward. He will have further conversations with water company chief executives in due course, including with Southern Water, on a range of issues, and will be sure to raise the experiences of those impacted by flooding and supply interruptions and scrutinise their plans to improve.
Asked by: Helena Dollimore (Labour (Co-op) - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking with Southern Water to fix their water infrastructure.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has already met with CEOs of all 16 water companies, including Southern Water, setting out his expectations from government going forward. He will have further conversations with water company chief executives in due course, including with Southern Water, on a range of issues, and will be sure to raise the experiences of those impacted by flooding and supply interruptions and scrutinise their plans to improve.
Asked by: Helena Dollimore (Labour (Co-op) - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to tackle the causes of repeated flooding of Hastings town centre by Southern Water.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The kind of surface water flooding that Hastings experienced in 2023 generally occurs after extreme rainfall when water cannot immediately drain away or soak into the ground. It can happen very quickly, be difficult to predict and can be exacerbated by impermeable built environment and overwhelmed drainage capacity.
The responsibility for local flood risk management falls to lead local flood authorities (LLFA), in collaboration with water companies. The Government’s Flood Resilience Taskforce will deliver flood defences, drainage systems and natural flood management schemes. In addition, our Water Bill will put water companies under tough special measures where they do not meet performance expectations, by strengthening regulation as a first legislative step towards improving the sector.
When a flood occurs, LLFAs investigate which risk management authorities have relevant flood risk management functions and whether they have exercised those functions.