Britain is swamped with raw sewage – polluters must be prosecuted not paid

There has been zero improvement in our river water quality since 2016. Higher fines are needed, and water bosses should be held to account, writes Jim McMahon

‘People are right to feel upset and let down at the state of our natural environment’ (iStock)

Making Britain a country to be proud of means that everyone should have a right to a high quality and cherished natural environment. The Tories haven’t just turned a blind eye, they have actively blocked our attempts to clean up the water industry.

Every year millions of tonnes of filthy raw sewage are discharged, last year alone a staggering 400,000 incidents affected almost every community in the country.

If you think this is something which affects our rivers, the sea, you might be shocked to discover the reality. Think about where you might walk, where your children or grandchild might play. It can affect many of those places, as I discovered when I checked my own constituency to find one playing field which had 26 incidents of raw sewage being discharged in just a single year.

Despite the damaging impact on public health and our environment, the Tories refuse to take proper action – ignoring Labour’s call for higher fines for water companies, proper annual parliamentary scrutiny of Defra, Ofwat and the Environment Agency, which were echoed last week by the Environmental Audit select committee report.

People are right to feel upset and let down at the state of our natural environment – particularly as not one English river is in a healthy condition and there has been zero improvement in river water quality since 2016.  And when the government seems hellbent on weakening policies and action to tackle the climate emergency the whole world is facing, it can feel like an impossible situation to put right.

A necessary and vital step is the implementation of a proper plan on how much raw human sewage would be stopped being discharged, and by when.  Lessons can clearly be learned from the record and experience of the Welsh Labour government, who have been able to require sustainable drainage systems to reduce the load on sewage systems and make investing to tackle future challenges a top priority.

But the Conservatives persist in sticking their fingers in their ears and letting big companies off the hook. Almost £19bn was handed to water company shareholders in dividends between 2010 and 2021, costing households in England up to £138 every year.  At a time when working families face an unprecedented squeeze on household budgets, they simply cannot continue to pick up the tab for companies who shirk their social responsibilities.

We’ve seen investment cut by a fifth, and the much-lauded investment which did come is often funded through debt, with around £50bn attracting £1.3bn in annual interest payments. Despite this, investment in wastewater has dwindled by more than £520m, comparisons between the 1990s and 2020s show, with a £1bn cut in capital investment. Utility companies cannot be allowed to circumnavigate their lack of adequate infrastructure by using illegal dumping methods. 

The billions handed to shareholders do nothing to clean up our rivers and seas.  But it’s an ethos that’s become so embedded in the way this government does business – those who wield the most power are swimming in profit, but do the bare minimum to ensure our natural environment isn’t swimming in goodness knows what.

Watchdogs seem to have little teeth, despite issuing hundreds of fines to guilty water firms, little progress is made to make England a clean and pleasant land.

Even a sensible measure put forward in October last year, which would have required water companies to; “make improvements to their sewerage systems and demonstrate progressive reductions in the harm caused by discharges of untreated sewage” was voted down as Tory whips went into overdrive to funnel their members into the lobby.

A Labour government will toughen up laws on polluting by reviewing legislation on enforcement and sanction, introducing penalties for under-reporting of incidents.

We will look at the feasibility of making prosecution for polluters the default when there’s a clear evidence base and when it’s in the public interest and introduce a requirement for live reporting of breaches and water quality, and for water companies to contact their customers when there is a pollution incident.

Labour is committed to holding water bosses to account, putting in place clear legal requirements to reduce raw sewage discharging into our land, rivers and coastline, and we will ensure the hard-earned money paid to water companies is directed to investment in our creaking network.

Jim McMahon is shadow secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs