Water Companies: Executive Bonuses

Simon Lightwood Excerpts

Tuesday 5th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Steve Reed]

As always, my hon. Friend makes an important point very eloquently. I am sure that all our constituents up and down the country are appalled by what they have seen not just on “Panorama” last night, but when they have visited our beautiful waterways up and down the country. Raw human excrement polluting our waterways is not just disgusting; it destroys natural habitats, kills wildlife and damages tourism. Perhaps most appallingly of all, it makes people sick—children most of all—if they swallow parasitic bacteria and chemicals that should be nowhere near our rivers, lakes and seas.

How on earth did we get here? The Conservative Government cut the Environment Agency’s resources in half. That led to a dramatic reduction in monitoring, enforcement and prosecutions, leaving illegal sewage spills to double between 2016 and 2021.

[Simon Lightwood (Wakefield) (Lab/Co-op)]

My hon. Friend is making a very good speech. Like me, he will have noted that the Minister is in her place. She was strangely missing yesterday for the Lib Dem amendment on compensation for those harmed by the criminal handling of sewage, though she was present in the Division Lobby just 15 minutes later. Does my hon. Friend think that she was allowed to abstain, or should she be sacked?

[Steve Reed]

It is hard to know whether discipline has broken down in the Conservative party; its Members seem able to rebel with impunity. When the Minister speaks, I am sure she will enlighten the House about what happened.

Instead of acting on the warnings, the Government have turned a blind eye to what has been going on. Thanks to this Government’s wilful negligence, we see record levels of toxic sewage swilling through our rivers and lakes, pouring into our seas and lapping on to our beaches.

--- Later in debate ---

[Simon Lightwood (Wakefield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Like every MP across the House, I receive emails and postcards every week from constituents about the state of our environment, our nature and our planet. It is clear why our communities care so much about this: we are one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world and we are living in a dirty water emergency. The two main rivers in the Wakefield district, the River Calder and the River Aire, are the second and third most polluted rivers in the country. Last year, there were 1,316 discharges of raw sewage into Wakefield’s rivers and waterways, totalling 5,816 hours—the equivalent of eight months non-stop. It is no surprise that that is happening under the Tories’ watch. The Government see action on nature and pollution as something they must do rather than something they want to do.

This is not the first Opposition day debate where Labour has called for tougher action on polluters— but, time after time, the Conservatives block it. We have seen the Environment Agency’s budget cut, leading to less monitoring and enforcement of the law. We have seen the Office for Environmental Protection launch an investigation into whether the Government and the water companies may have broken the law over sewage discharges, and we have seen mealy-mouthed statements and weak plans from a Conservative Government in denial. Labour is clear that the polluters should pay.

Earlier this year, we saw water companies asking for more money from customers to fix the problem. With a £111 increase for constituents in Yorkshire, it is no wonder that they faced such a backlash. If companies do not improve, the money should come from dividends going to shareholders, not from increasing people’s bills. Those bosses who continue to break the rules repeatedly should face professional and personal sanctions for their behaviour. The soft-touch approach has to end. To allow us to get the information we need about the sewage being pumped into our lakes and rivers, we need mandatory monitoring of all sewage outlets as well as proper resourcing for the Environment Agency so that the law can be enforced. We will solve this problem only with tougher action and by sticking to our commitments. I do not want my kids to think that the current state of our waterways is normal. We owe it to future generations to sort this out once and for all, which is why I urge Members to support Labour’s motion.