Lib Dems propose ‘complete shake up’ of water sector

Monitoring alone is inadequate in the effort to stop environmental harm from water pollution, the MP for Abingdon has said as she called for government to be tougher against the water sector.

Liberal Democrat Layla Moran told a Westminster Hall debate that monitoring combined sewer overflow discharges is not enough, as she pushed for tougher action against the sector and its regulators.

Oxfordshire-based Moran called for water for companies to be transformed into “public benefit companies”, which she said would “stop the prioritisation of profits over our waterways, without the distraction of renationalisation”.

Under Liberal Democrat’s proposal, there would be a “complete shake up across the board” that would place “public policy benefits” at the heart of how companies are run, Moran told a Westminster Hall debate on the performance of Thames Water in Oxfordshire.

All wastewater companies have completed rolling out event duration monitors (EDM) to CSOs, which have brought attention to the number of times these are spilling. The data has caused widespread public outrage, despite 97% of spills being compliant with environmental permits.

As well as outlining complaints that her constituents raised about waterways, Moran struck out at the wider industry, saying: “The whole system needs fixing, we need radical action, we need to protect our environment and we need to bring people’s bills down”.

As part of the reforms pitched by the Liberal Democrats, Moran said executive bonuses should be banned until sewage discharges no longer happen; a sewage tax should be imposed to fud the cleanup of waterways and an end to sewage dumping.

Robbie Moore, water minister, highlighted the work undertaken to monitor overflows with EDMs, which this government instructed the sector to roll out. However the member for Abingdon argued it was insufficient to just know about pollution.

“The government has acted far too slowly and limply as our rivers get dirty and our water bills get higher,” she said. “Knowing what’s happening is not enough, it’s time for radical improvement.

She said government talk about progress in monitoring was inadequate: “It’s just not good enough to just monitor the sewage that is flowing into our rivers. We need to stop it all together.”

Legally binding targets were promised from the previous environment secretary last April, Moran noted and said these have yet to appear.

Moran said she had been meeting with Thames “for years” to discuss performance and bemoaned that the organisation had made little progress on successive plans she had been shown during those visits.

After management changes, Thames has a new turnaround plan targeted at its weakest areas of performance. It has submitted ambitious plans to Ofwat for 2025-30, which includes record investment of £18.7 billion. It proposed bill rises of 40% to fund the programme of work.

The atmosphere of mistrust has caused Moran’s constituents to lose faith, particularly in Thames’ competency to deliver a new 150 million cubic litre reservoir at Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

Liberal Democrats in the region launched a campaign against Thames’ proposed “unfair price hike”, Moran said as she complained that the company had underinvested while in the same breath calling that bills must be suppressed.

The water minister promised that this government would “hold the water company to account with the use of the regulators at the Environment Agency and Ofwat,” and added that Thames must make “clear and measurable progress as swiftly as possible”.