We are determined to build back greener following the pandemic and progress our 25 Year Environment Plan and its commitment to clean and plentiful water.

The Government recognises the importance of protecting the nation's natural environment and we are investing accordingly.

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Spending Review settlement provides a £4.3 billion cash increase over the rest of this Parliament to £7 billion in 2024-25.

The settlement will allow us to deliver on the Government’s ambitious environmental agenda to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030, achieve Net Zero by 2050, increase resilience to flooding and coastal erosion, support innovation and progress the levelling up agenda.

The settlement delivers against the goals of the 25 Year Environment Plan for nature’s recovery and includes more than £250 million in public investment over three years to include, among other things, tackling nutrient pollution in rivers and streams.

The Spending Review 2021 also sets a stretching new target to raise at least £500 million in private finance for nature’s recovery every year by 2027 and more than £1 billion a year by 2030.

The Government has taken powers in the Environment Act 2021 to create new, legally-binding targets in four priority areas including water. These new targets will be an important mechanism to drive environmental improvement and meet our ambitious objectives for the water environment in the 25 Year Environment Plan.

The Act places clear duties on water and sewerage companies to progressively reduce the adverse impacts of discharges from storm overflows and improve transparency of reporting when discharges occur.

The Environment Agency is driving transparency with 80% of storm overflows now having Event Duration Monitors and all overflows will be monitored by the end of 2023, allowing water companies to report the frequency and duration of spills to the Environment Agency (EA) each year so they can assess compliance. The Environment Agency is acting on new information, suggesting that some water companies in England may indeed not be complying with their permits and a major Environment Agency/Ofwat investigation has been launched.

We are committed to funding the EA to improve the water environment. For example, we are providing additional funding to the EA to increase their farm inspection regime nationwide over the next 18 months. In 2021/2 this includes an expectation of a fourfold increase in farm inspections undertaken nationally with plans to scale up further in 2022/3.

Whilst necessary to uphold basic standards, enforcement of the regulations alone are not sufficient because farmers need advice to understand the risks posed to water by agriculture and funding support where actions beyond regulatory requirements are needed to reduce pollution further.

We are expanding the Catchment Sensitive Farming Programme, almost doubling its funding by providing an additional £17 million over the next three years to enable it to cover 100% of farms in England. Over the last 15 years this programme has been one of the main ways to help farmers tackle pollution which results from manure, fertiliser and soil running off into rivers when it rains. It provides free 1-2-1 advice to farmers to help them reduce water and air pollution through management of nutrients, soils, animals and infrastructure among other things.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs