Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey has demanded water companies share plans on improving Britain’s water infrastructure, a Defra press release has stated.

The fresh move is part of the drive for better water quality, building on significant work with industry and regulators, allowing government to track progress of investment and new projects.

The Environment Secretary has demanded a clear assessment & action plan on every storm overflow from every water and sewerage company in England, prioritising those that are spilling more than a certain number of times a year, and those spilling into bathing waters and high priority nature sites.

She has also set out more detail on how water companies will face higher penalties that are quicker and easier to enforce. Any water company caught illegally polluting our waters currently faces enforcement action from the Environment Agency. This can range from Enforcement Undertakings – companies paying to restore damage to the environment – through to prosecution in the courts.

The most serious cases are dealt with through criminal prosecutions. Fines of more than £102 million were handed out in 2021. Last year it was announced that money from these fines will be re-invested into schemes that benefit the environment, rather than being returned to the Treasury.

On the upper limit of fines, all options – including £250 million – remain on the table. There will be a public consultation in the spring to find an upper limit that is a real and serious deterrent.

Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said:

“People are concerned about the impacts of sewage entering our rivers and seas and I am crystal clear that this is totally unacceptable.

We need to be clear that this is not a new problem. Storm overflows have existed for over a century. The law has always allowed for discharges, subject to regulation. That is how our Victorian sewers are built – wastewater and rain are carried in the same pipe. When it reaches a certain height, it pours into another pipe and into rivers.”

The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, published last year, required water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history – £56 billion capital investment over 25 years.

But Labour doubted the effectiveness of the Government’s proposals, the Evening Standard reported.

Shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon said: “If Therese Coffey really wanted to clean up the Tory sewage scandal, she would implement Labour’s robust approach, rather than yet another ‘improvement plan’ that allows water companies to mark their own homework and doesn’t deliver action.

“But Coffey has form, having been the Water Minister that presided over a new sewage dumping event every four minutes and rolled back action on water pollution.”

Further information and resources:

The announcement has been reported in BBC Radio Four’s Today Programme news bulletins, The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent, i News, Evening Standard and the Press Association.

Regionally, there was coverage in the Yorkshire Post, Jersey Evening Post, Redditch & Alcester Advertiser, St Helens Star, NW Mail, Ayr Advertiser and others.

More detail on the government’s plans to deliver clean and plentiful water were also set out last month in its Environmental Improvement Plan 2023.

The full press release  from Defra on Thérèse Coffey demands for water companies share plans on improving Britain’s water infrastructure can be read here.