(Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)
I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to provide for mandatory
targets and timescales for the ending of sewage discharges into
waterways and coastal areas; to make provision about the powers
of Ofwat to monitor and enforce compliance with those targets and
timescales; to require water companies to publish quarterly
reports on the impact of sewage discharges on the natural
environment, animal welfare and human health; to require the
membership of water company boards to include at least one
representative of an environmental group; and for connected
purposes.
It is such a privilege to be in this place to speak for the
people of the lakes and dales of Cumbria. Cumbria is one of the
most beautiful places on earth. It is also, on occasion, one of
the wettest. It needs to be; how else could we keep the lakes,
tarns, meres, waters, rivers and becks filled and flowing?
Cumbria is home to two national parks and two world heritage
sites, yet its waterways are shamefully often polluted by sewage
discharges, and those discharges take place legally and without
sanction. Our lakes and rivers are our natural treasures, yet
water company bosses are degrading those natural treasures to
keep a hold of their own treasure. Last year, the water companies
made profits of £2.7 billion and paid out £27 million in bonuses.
Their chief executives earn seven-figure sums, yet they are free
by law to preside over enormous numbers of dangerous discharges
that damage our environment and our wildlife, and are a threat to
human life, too.
This Bill aims to stop the water companies putting their personal
treasure ahead of our natural treasure. The Government choose to
let them get away with it, but this Bill will stop them. In 2021,
raw sewage was pumped into the River Lune near Sedbergh in my
constituency for 5,351 hours—the equivalent of 222 continuous
days. This is not just a problem for me and my constituents; it
is a colossal crisis affecting the entire country. Water
companies pumped sewage into rivers nationwide 772,000 times in
the last two years—more than 1,000 discharges each day. Some of
those discharges lasted almost a whole year, and all of them were
legal. Sewage discharges happen far too frequently and for far
too long for the Government and the water companies to be able to
credibly hide behind the excuse that they are caused only by
exceptional rainfall. As a result of these discharges, only 14%
of England’s rivers now meet the criteria to be defined as
ecologically good.
It is true that our sewerage systems are shamelessly out of date,
but the water companies responsible for improving them have
little impetus to do so because the Government are barely holding
them to account. The British public pay these companies to not
just provide us with clean water, but ensure safe and clean
processes for waste water and sewage. Too often, it feels as
though the companies forget about half of that bargain, and this
Government let them. United Utilities, our local water company in
the north-west, was the culprit in four of the 10 longest sewage
discharges in 2021—the most of any water company in the country.
Meanwhile it posted profits of £602 million and dished out £6
million in bonuses—also the most of any water company in the
country. Far from being punished or held accountable for the
degradation of our waterways, the water bosses, it appears to the
public, are being rewarded for it. Those 772,000 discharges were
legal. They happened under the Government’s nose while the rest
of us had to hold ours.
The water companies are also guilty of emissions that have broken
the law, but they are rarely held to account. That is, of course,
something of a theme for this Government. Between 2018 and 2021,
only 11 fines were issued to water companies for pumping sewage
into our lakes and rivers. Only three of those fines were over £1
million, and four were less than £50,000. The Government make it
cheaper for water companies to pay a fine than to take action to
stop the discharges. It is no wonder that the companies do not
invest enough in cleaning up our lakes and rivers.
I can confirm that I left the lakes this morning without a coat,
because spring is here. The visitors are with us in Cumbria, and
summer is around the corner. The UK’s waterways will soon be
teeming with swimmers, dippers and paddlers, nowhere more so than
in the English lakes and most of all Windermere, at the heart of
the most visited part of the UK outside London. Windermere has
three designated bathing sites, all of them ranked as being of
good standard. It is currently a safe place to visit, but the
Government’s weak regulation is putting that at risk.
United Utilities legally dumped sewage into Windermere on 71 days
in 2020. How can that be considered anything other than
outrageous? The Government allow such discharges because they are
considered to be storm events. Well, Cumbria has more rainfall in
a month than many places have in a year. Things that might strike
Ministers in London as storm events are actually mild drizzle for
those of us in the lakes. By allowing the water companies to hide
behind storm events as an excuse to pollute our lakes and rivers,
the Government show their ignorance of communities such as ours
in Cumbria and allow the water companies to pollute Britain’s
wettest places the worst.
Tourism and hospitality employs 60,000 people in Cumbria. It is
by far our biggest employer, being worth £3.5 billion a year to
our local economy. I do not want the Government to put that at
risk by allowing our lakes to be polluted. I want them to protect
the wellbeing of everyone who visits and lives in the lakes.
As well as the human impact, there is an ecological impact.
Maintaining the quality of our rivers, streams and lakes is
crucial to protecting biodiversity for centuries to come. The
Environmental Audit Committee has reported that
“rivers in England are in a mess.”
The population of 39 of the 42 main salmon rivers in England are
categorised as at risk or probably at risk. When one part of the
complex interconnected life of a river is damaged, the whole
ecosystem is hurt, from duckweed and dragonflies to otters and
trout.
We must not be duped into thinking that the Government took
action to deal with this in the Environment Act 2021. We remember
they had to be dragged kicking and screaming by Members of the
other place into moving an amendment, but that amendment is
essentially meaningless. It sets no timescales or targets. It is
a wish list, not an action plan.
This Bill would put that right by ensuring that action is taken.
It would provide for mandatory targets and timescales for the
ending of sewage discharges into waterways and coastal areas. It
would also strengthen Ofwat, the Water Services Regulation
Authority, to hold water companies accountable. Furthermore, it
would take the radical step of placing representatives of local
environmental groups on the board of these companies so that
executives have nowhere to hide from the impact of their
practices on our waterways, on the wildlife that depends on them
and on the economies and communities they underpin.
The Bill would also help to get to the heart of the problem, not
just the headlines, by making sure we get the right information.
The Government tell us how long discharges happen and how often
they happen, but not the volume of sewage discharged into the
watercourses. Without that information, we cannot know the scale
of the problem. In small rivers and becks, or in the confined
space of a lake, volume has a much bigger and more damaging
impact on humans, animals and ecology.
Both the Government and the water companies hide behind asking
inadequate questions, and therefore getting inadequate answers.
For instance, the Government’s Environment Agency has to test for
nutrients and chemicals in the water, but it does not have to
test for bacteria, yet bacteria are the greatest health concern.
Unless a watercourse is designated as bathing water, and barely
any rivers are designated as bathing water, bacteria is tested
for only by concerned citizens such as the marvellous people I
recently met on the River Kent in Staveley. Testing for bacteria
must become compulsory.
The River Kent in Cumbria is designated as a site of special
scientific interest. Among other things, it hosts protected
species such as pearl mussels, which are rarer than the giant
panda, yet sewage is being legally discharged into this protected
river almost every day.
The House can see why this Bill matters to my community and the
whole United Kingdom. The Bill would require water companies to
produce accurate and comprehensive quarterly reports on the
impact of sewage discharges on animal welfare, human health and
the environment. The public have a right to know what our water
companies are being allowed to do. With the cleansing impact of
public scrutiny, and the literally cleansing effect of water
companies spending their money on upgrades rather than bonuses,
hopefully the public will soon see encouraging signs to give them
faith in our waterways and renewed faith in our political system
that the polluters will actually be held to account for dumping
sewage into our lakes and rivers, that they will no longer be
permitted to do so, no matter how powerful they may be, and that
companies making billions in profit will no longer be protected
by a Conservative Government who permitted them to discharge
sewage 772,000 times in two years.
What, then, shall we protect: the inflated profits of water
companies, or the safety and beauty of our lakes and rivers? It
is time for all of us in this House to take action and to pick a
side.
Question put and agreed to.
Ordered,
That , , , , , , , , , , and present the Bill.
accordingly presented the Bill.
Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 6
May, and to be printed (Bill 303).
