The government has “no time to waste” in punishing “disgraced” water companies, the Liberal Democrats have said after obtaining new data on firms breaching permits for sewage spills.
The nine water companies in England breached their environmental permits 695 times last year, often due to pumping raw sewage into waterways without permission, a Freedom of Information (FoI) request revealed.
The figure is well above the previous two years, but not as high as the 841 in 2020.
It comes amid public fury over the polluted state of the country’s waterways, and as Greenpeace revealed the former Tory water minister in March tried to obscure headline figures about the extent of sewage spills.
The Liberal Democrats, whose support is strongest in rural constituencies, has campaigned hard on sewage and dirty water.
On Friday, it repeated its calls for an industry crackdown.
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Its environment spokesperson Tim Farron said: “These polluting firms are breaching their permits on an almost daily basis, all whilst pocketing massive bonuses and profits. Frankly, the whole thing stinks.
“The new government has no time to waste in punishing these disgraced firms.”
This should start with an immediate ban on all executive bonuses, but go on to tackle “complete reform of the industry”, he said.
His fellow party MP Layla Moran told Sky News reforms should include turning the companies into “public benefit companies”.
“I think most people would agree that’s a good thing, but also it would not be the taxpayer that is bailing them out,” she said. “That’s really critical.”
According to the FoI to the Environment Agency, a third of the violations (250) were due to companies discharging untreated sewage into waterways.
Water firms are allowed to do this as an emergency measure during heavy rain, to avoid sewers backing up into people’s homes, as rainwater and sewage wash down the same pipes.
The companies also get their knuckles wrapped for breaches for other reasons, such as failing to look after the countryside or access properly, or for damaged signage.
Severn Trent made 132 breaches in 2023, making the water company the worst offender, followed by Southern Water and United Utilities which both made 108 breaches.
A Defra spokesperson said: “The new government will never look the other way while water companies pump record levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas.”
It has already ensured investment is ringfenced so it cannot be diverted for bonuses or dividends, they said.
It is also proposing criminal charges and a bonus ban for bosses that break the law, and hopes to attract private sector investment to repair the country’s creaking sewer system.
A spokesperson for Water UK, which represents the water industry, said: “The latest data confirms that water company compliance is extremely high, with around 99% of sewage treatment works and storm overflows meeting their permits.”
“Nonetheless, water companies are committed to reaching 100% compliance”, and are proposing a combined £105bn investment to upgrade the system, they said.
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Tories tried to mask scale of sewage spills before general election, emails suggest
This week Greenpeace published emails that showed then Tory water minister Robbie Moore tried to obscure figures showing an increase in sewage spills into the country’s rivers and seas.
In March, the Environment Agency (EA) published data showing the number of raw sewage spills in England had doubled in duration to four million hours in 2023, and the number of spills had risen 54% to 464,000.
But in the days beforehand, the minister pressured the EA to mask figures showing the total number of spills.
The minister “has decided that the portal should be published tomorrow, but should NOT include total hours or total number of spills”, correspondence obtained under FOI said.
Robbie Moore remains the Conservative MP for Keighley. Pic: PA
Instead, the minister wanted the EA to highlight the average number spills per overflow point, and the percentage of those that were monitored.
It is widely accepted that the rise in sewage spills was largely due to the wet winter that overwhelmed sewers and an increase in the number of monitors.
The EA refused to comply with the minster’s request.
In an email sent at 7:39pm the night before publication, its chief executive Philip Duffy said hiding the figures would be “counter-productive”.
If they did not publish the full data on the landing page, campaigners would “tot up the numbers and accuse us of trying to cover them up”, he warned.
“It will damage the EA and it will damage the government.”
The Conservative Party declined to comment and Robbie Moore has not responded to a request to comment.
An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “The Environment Agency is fully committed to transparency.”