Water bosses responsible for illegally dumping raw sewage “should be in the dock” for the damage caused to the UK’s waterways, Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary has insisted.
Richard Vaughan, inews.co.uk
Steve Reed has warned executives of the major water companies that Labour will go after them personally with criminal sanctions if they continue to allow illegal “toxic” discharges to pollute the country’s rivers and seas.
Currently the firms themselves can be held liable for pollution but individual executives rarely are.
The Shadow Cabinet minister claimed that the Conservative Government has “turned a blind eye” to sewage dumping because of “a cosy relationship” with “the polluting water industry”.
Speaking exclusively to i as part the Save Britain’s Rivers campaign, Mr Reed accused water firms of “corruption” and vowed to legally pursue chief executives if they fail to clean up the mess being left in the country’s waterways.
“Last year, we had the highest level of illegal sewage discharges in history. And that means you’ve got toxic, raw sewage swilling through our rivers, our lakes and into our seas and lapping up onto our beaches. And the public are quite rightly furious about this,” he said.
Mr Reed highlighted the case of United Utilities, which was accused last year of downgrading pollution incidents, including dumping raw sewage into the World Heritage Site Lake Windermere. The move enabled the firm to increase its bills for customers by £5.1m, according to a BBC Panorama documentary. United Utilities denies the allegations.
Asked if water bosses should be in court over the illegal dumping of sewage, Mr Reed said: “The reason I want to begin personal criminal liability is because I think they should. I do think they should, but this government has just sat back and let them get away with it.
“And you have to ask why? What is this cosy relationship that exists between the Conservative Government and the polluting water industry?”
Labour has vowed to immediately place water companies in “special measures” if it forms a government, and will block the payment of bonuses to water executives if they are found to have overseen illegal sewage dumping. The bosses of the worst offending companies will then be held personally criminally liable and firms will be stripped of powers to self-monitor their own water outlets.
Water companies receive permits that allow them to discharge sewage into rivers, lakes and coastal areas during times of exceptional rainfall to prevent their infrastructure from becoming overwhelmed.
However, firms have faced repeated accusations of dumping sewage outside the parameters of of these permits, which is illegal.
Criminal charges can be filed for breaches of these permits, but such cases are lengthy and expensive, meaning that the Environment Agency (EA) often relies on civil penalties. The Government recently increased the maximum fine that water companies can face in civil cases from £250,000 to £250 million.
For the most severe cases, the EA does pursue criminal charges, but these have resulted in fines levied against water companies, not custodial sentences for executives.
For example, Southern Water was fined £90m as part of a criminal investigation that concluded in 2021 that found the firm was responsible for thousands of illegal raw sewage discharges that polluted rivers and coastal water around Kent.
The EA has in the past urged courts to impose jail sentences on water company executives when serious cases of pollution are proved. However, the Crown Prosecution Service would have to consider the public interest when deciding whether to charge executives with criminal offences, and weigh how likely they would be to secure a conviction.
Mr Reed told i that the threat of losing bonus payments and possibly ending up in court will “focus the minds of water bosses”.
“It will make sure they comply with the law, and that means making sure you put in place a serious plan to bring in the investment that we need to get the water infrastructure fixed,” he said.
The dumping of sewage has become a major political issue as people across Britain have become increasingly aware of how often untreated waste is being released into our waters through points known as “storm overflows”.
This awareness is partly due to increased monitoring; in December water companies hit a Government-imposed target of installing monitoring equipment at 100 per cent of these storm overflow points for sewage spills, up from just 7 per cent in 2010.
Mr Reed, the MP for Croydon North, also pledged to look at the “revolving door” between regulators Ofwat and the Environment Agency and the water companies.
An investigation last year found that at least six senior current industry staff members have been identified as moving jobs between regulators including Ofwat and the EA and water firms such as Southern, Northumbrian and South West Water.
The EA Government body has itself come under fire for its failure to properly regulate water companies who flout the conditions of their permits. Last month i revealed that the watchdog failed to visit 90 per cent of toxic water spills in England last year, including 60 per cent of the most serious incidents.
Mr Reed also raised the Conservatives’ attempts to scrap so-called nutrient neutrality regulations that protect waterways from overdevelopment in a bid to build more housing. He suggested it was an example of the Tories turning a “blind eye” to water pollution to appease big developers, many of whom are Conservative Party donors.
“Looking at the nutrient neutrality issue, who is one of the biggest sources of donations to the Conservative Party? It’s developers. And who is the government trying to lower environmental standards to benefit? It’s developers. Well, there’s a cosy relationship.”
He said the Government is “as aware as anyone” about the problem, but has failed to prevent it because the Conservatives have a “far too cosy relationship with the water companies”.
It comes as Labour has published figures that show water bosses have paid themselves a staggering £25m in bonuses since the 2019 election, despite accusations of widespread failure in the system.
“There’s £25m I’ve identified that could be spent on improving infrastructure by not paying it as bonuses and incentives to water bosses who are overseeing law breaking. I don’t think the public should be charged a penny more. While there is that amount of corruption – and I do think it’s corruption – in the system.
“If you’re knowingly breaking the law and covering it up to make more money for yourself and your company, that is corruption.”
The Conservatives have been approached for comment.
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