Sewage discharges ‘getting better, not worse’, minister assures

Polluted waterways in England and Wales are not a new problem and should not be treated as such because people are more aware of them now, Zac Goldsmith has told the House of Lords.

Responding to oral questions on Monday (5 September), the environment minister assured peers that water quality is improving and insisted discharges from overflows were “getting better, not worse” since the legal requirement to install event duration monitors was imposed under the Environment Act.

He said cases of pollution in rivers and seas were more prominent as a consequence of improved monitoring, rather than an increase in pollution.

“We shouldn’t pretend the problem is new because we’ve discovered it for the first time. The problem has been there for a long time,” Goldsmith said.

The minister defended private ownership of water companies and said renationalisation would not deliver investment for essential infrastructure.

“We don’t believe nationalisation is the answer,” he said. “It would place an enormous financial burden on the taxpayer and wouldn’t deliver anything like the level of investment we have seen in recent years.”

This was despite Lord Hain’s suggestion that “the popular will is very clearly in favour of reversal of privatisation”.

Goldsmith added that government shared in the “overwhelming” public view that more action is needed to protect the health and resilience of waterways to enhance nature and ensure future supply, which capital investment will deliver.

Drought, discharges from combined sewer overflows and leakage rates have all catapulted the water sector to headline news this summer, which has led to renewed debates around ownership models.

Goldsmith said he was not convinced the not-for-profit Welsh Water was an improvement over the English system.