Water bosses responsible for illegal sewage dumping will face criminal charges and have their bonuses axed under new laws, the Environment Secretary has said.
Writing in the Mail, Steve Reed said he would introduce law aimed at giving regulators “more teeth.”
“Water bosses responsible for repeated illegal sewage dumping will face criminal charges, and I’ll ban the payment of their multimillion-pound bonuses until they clean up their toxic filth,” he said.
Reed blamed weak regulation for a climate in which it has become “more profitable to let the pollution flow rather than fix the broken pipes.”
“This should never have been allowed to happen, and, with our new Labour government, it will never happen again.”
Reed also spoke on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme. “What I want to do is clean up our water. We’ll do it by making the water bosses face criminal charges if they are responsible for persistent, severe levels of illegal sewage dumping,” he said, although he did not provide specifics of the level of dumping needed to trigger the proposed punishments.
He added: “We will ring-fence customers’ money that is earmarked for spending on investing in the sewer system. So, if it’s not spent on that, it will be refunded to customers in a discount on their bills.”
According to the Environment Agency, there were 47 serious pollution incidents in 2023, up from 44 the year prior. Some 90 per cent of those incidents were the responsiblity of only four companies; Thames Water, Anglian Water, Southern Water and Yorkshire Water.
The Guardian reported in March that more than 4m hours of raw sewage discharge poured into rivers and seas last year, a 129 per cent increase on the previous 12 months.
Reed also addressed Thames Water, stating there would be no move to temporarily nationalise the crisis-hit utilities giant. There is “no need to have undue concerns at the moment,” he said, adding there was “no threat” to water supply.
Moody’s on Wednesday downgraded Thames Water’s debt to “junk” in response to Ofwat’s latest ruling against the company. It means the company is highly likely to default on its debt, making it harder to borrow money.