Maggie welcomes commitment to legislate sewage overflow targets

Erewash MP Maggie Throup has backed the next stage of the Government’s plan to tackle sewage pollution by enshrining a target to improve sewage overflows into law.

In August 2022, the Government set out its Storm Overflows plan which requires the largest infrastructure programme in water company history to tackle sewage overflows – costing an estimated £56bn. The plan prioritises investments in priority sites including protected habitats and bathing waters. In April, £1.6 billion investment was brought forward to speed up vital water infrastructure projects, cutting thousands of overflow spills each year.

The Government have also reconfirmed that they will be lifting the cap on civil penalties for water and sewerage companies, raising them up to unlimited penalties so that polluters pay for their impact on the environment, with funds now being reinvested into further improving rivers and water bodies. Today’s announcement will place the improvement targets in the Storm Overflows Reduction Plan on a statutory footing, making them legally binding.

Maggie said: “Erewash residents are rightly disgusted by sewage in our rivers, and so am I. I’ve been clear – Severn Trent, whilst already acting on this issue, must go further to clean up their act. If they don’t, I urge Government Ministers to use the full force of the law, including unlimited penalties.

“The Conservative Government has introduced mandatory monitoring that will ensure 100 per cent monitoring of storm overflows by the end of the year, up from just seven per cent a short time ago.” 

Meanwhile the Labour Party have today tabled legislation which directly replicates existing government policy. This includes:

• Bringing in monitoring, which will already be completed by the end of the year
• Requiring a plan to be published, which the government already set out last year
• Setting legal targets, which the government has already committed to do
• Introducing automatic fines, which reduces the fine available to regulators, rather than increasing them to unlimited as the government will do

Maggie added: “This is yet another political gimmick from the Labour Party. We deal in action; they deal in press releases.”

Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats have committed to introducing a tax on water companies which would take over 500 years to fund their sewage overflow plans.

Maggie said: “This is another gimmick from the Liberal Democrats who are not fit to govern. The people of Erewash deserve better. We are the only party with a clear, costed plan to deal with sewage overflows.”