Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made on whether individual water companies can achieve targets set out the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan.

The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan was launched in August 2022. Water companies are currently preparing their business plans as part of the planning cycle for 2025-2030 (PR24), setting out how they will achieve Government targets over the next five years.

Government is committing to review the targets in the plan in 2027. This will allow us to establish if companies can go further and faster to achieve the storm overflow targets in this Plan without having a disproportionate impact on consumers bills.