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 support chalk stream restoration in (a) Hogsmill River and (b) the rest of the South East.

The Environment Agency (EA) is working with the Chalk Stream Restoration Group, and other partners, to protect and restore chalk streams across the South East. For example, it is ensuring that water companies have ambitious but affordable programmes that address the threats to chalk streams, including restoring sustainable abstraction in chalk catchments and reducing the impacts of discharges from storm overflows. It also continues to work with partners to lead or support numerous chalk stream restoration projects.

The Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP) is a programme used to continuously improve the water industry and thus protect our water and waterbodies. There are 8 WINEP water quality actions that Thames Water will undertake in AMP8 (between 2025 and 2030) at Hogsmill. The EA have also been supporting species recovery of water voles on the Hogsmill.