Liz Truss’s £235m cut to Environment Agency ‘doubled sewage discharge’

Raw sewage discharge doubled between 2016 and 2021, and Labour is blaming ‘efficiency savings’ by Tory leadership front runner

Liz Truss presided over cuts to Environment Agency funding which “doubled sewage discharge”, it has been claimed.

According to Labour Party analysis, raw sewage discharge has more than doubled since 2016, when the Tory leadership hopeful was environment secretary.

This rose from 1.47 per overflow six years ago to 29.3 in 2021, according to the analysis of official figures.

This increase coincided with Ms Truss cutting £80m of sewage monitors as part of a £235m Tory axe to the EA’s budget, which she branded “efficiency savings”.

It comes amid intense scrutiny over the health of UK waters, with new figures showing raw sewage has been discharged into the environment well over a million times in the past five years.

The Independent has also revealed all wastewater companies in England and Wales failed to meet their pollution or sewage flood targets last year.

The Environment Agency works closely with water companies to ensure they are closely monitoring and reporting back on their discharge activity.

As environment secretary, Ms Truss justified cuts saying “there are ways we can make savings as a department” citing better use of technology and inter-agency working.

Liz Truss has previously spent time as environment secretary (Jacob King/PA) (PA Wire)

But shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon said: “Under the Tories, the country is facing a crisis in our water supply. Our water infrastructure is at bursting point, with billions of litres of water being wasted every day and raw sewage being dumped into our waters.

“The fact that Liz Truss was the one to cut the EA [Environment Agency] so severely, not only demonstrates her lack of foresight but also her lack of care for the detail, in recognising the need to adapt to the serious flooding that had just happened on her watch.

“Labour will address the challenges in our water supply system by strengthening regulation and ensuing that bosses of water companies are held to account legally and financially for their negligence.”

Protests have taken place this year calling for an end to sewage pollution (Ben Birchall/PA) (PA Wire)

A senior consultant for the Environment Agency told The Guardian about the cuts: “They plummeted to the point it was impossible for the Environment Agency to know what’s going on.

“They had no control or monitoring capability that was meaningful. They ceded the control of monitoring to water companies, which ended up being able to mark their own homework. They take their own samples and assess whether they are being compliant.

“We saw that doesn’t work – look what happened with Southern Water, which didn’t declare its pollution incidents and ended up being fined by the EA when they were found out.

“There are suspicions this could be happening across the board. It has been left to citizen scientists who monitor and fill in the gaps.”

Mr Lewis added: “Lots of this would have happened under Liz Truss; she was there when some of those cuts were made. She was a poor minister and the Environment Agency has been cut to the bone, and it can’t monitor or regulate effectively.”

The Labour analysis comes as dozens of pollution warnings were issued for beaches and swimming spots in England and Wales following heavy rain that overwhelmed the sewage system.

There has been growing public outrage in recent years at the volume of raw or partially treated sewage pumped into the UK’s rivers and coastal waters.

Water firms are being criticised for not investing money back into the UK’s outdated water infrastructure, with mounting pressure on ministers to intervene.

They were also accused of “gross negligence” this week after it emerged sewage monitors on many British beaches were either faulty or missing.

Environmental charities have warned about polluted coastlines (PA Media)

On Monday, No 10 said it was the duty of firms to put customers before shareholders, with a spokesperson saying: “We have been clear that the failure of water companies to adequately reduce sewage discharges is completely unacceptable.

“They have a duty to put their customers before shareholders and we would expect them to take urgent action on this issue or face fines.”

She added: “We continue to speak regularly with them. The Environment Agency undertake enforcement action and monitoring, which we have stepped up.”

Downing Street also said water companies were already facing legal action from regulators.

Raw sewage has been discharged into the environment well over a million times in the past five years, figures show (Getty Images)

The spokesperson said: “Since 2015 the Environment Agency has brought 48 prosecutions against water and sewerage companies, securing fines of over £137m.”

She added that since privatisation, the equivalent of £5bn had been invested to upgrade water infrastructure, but the companies must “continue to take action”.

Sir Keir Starmer earlier accused the government of having its head in the sand over the scale of sewage being pumped into British waterways.

He said: “I think there is huge anger about the sewage situation, because we’re seeing yet again sewage pumped into our rivers and into our seas.

“What it shows is that the government hasn’t been tough enough on the water companies and the enforcement against the water companies.

“Of course, at the same time they have been cutting money to the Environment Agency.”

A spokesperson for Ms Truss said: “These spending reductions were part of a wider drive from central government to find efficiencies across department budgets and government agencies. “It’s vital we get a grip on pollution in our water and ensure it is clean and safe for all to enjoy. As Prime Minister, Liz will make sure the necessary action is taken to deliver this.”

Additional reporting by Press Association