Responding to the recent Lib Dem Press Release Selaine Saxby said:
“Storm overflows can have significant environmental impacts and the Government took action to regulate and reduce the number of discharges in the Environment Act 2021. This required the Government to set out a plan by 1 September 2022 to tackle the problem. The plan was published for consultation in March and proposes new mandatory time bound targets on water companies to stop the environmental harm from storm overflows and the plan will be released before the statutory deadline next week.
To clarify, I did not vote to allow sewage to be pumped into our rivers or seas. No one did – in fact MPs voted to increase the restrictions of water companies using overflows. During the passage of the Environment Act through parliament, the Duke of Wellington proposed an amendment to immediately stop the use of sewage overflows. Not only is this practically infeasible without flooding people’s homes with sewage, but he had also not considered the cost to consumers. Independent evidence commissioned by the Storm Overflows Taskforce estimated total elimination of overflows could cost up to £600bn. The Government agreed an alternative approach, mandating progressive reductions in discharges and agreeing targets that the water companies must achieve, which will be set out in the final plan, which prioritises dealing with the environmental and public health impacts first while also balancing this with the cost to consumers.
The Lib Dems plan to raise £340 million a year with their new ‘Sewage Tax’ on water companies to pay for improvements to eradicate sewage discharges, but with £350 to £600 billion necessary to make this happen it would take 1000 to 1750 years to implement. Between 2020 and 2025, water companies are investing £7.1 billion to protect and improve the environment. Of this, £3.1 billion is being invested specifically in storm overflow improvements. This includes £1.9 billion investment on the Thames Tideway Tunnel super sewer. With a catchy name, ‘Sewage Tax’ may get headlines, clicks and likes on social media, but it does nothing to actually address the problem, it is pure flag waving politics.
Combined sewage systems mean that rainwater from drains and sewage use the same pipes underground. At times of high rainfall, for example during recent flash flooding, the pipes reach capacity, and to stop sewage escaping into homes and streets, the system was designed to discharge to rivers or the sea via storm overflows.
One of the reasons that there are more reports of these discharges is that the Government has required water companies to monitor more of their overflow pipes. In 2016 only 800 were monitored, by 2020 over 12,000 were monitored and water companies are obliged to monitor all 15000 by next year. We know about more incidents because there are more monitors and it is factually inaccurate to compare the number of discharges in 2016 to 2021, the Lib Dems know this, they just do not care and are happy to join in with those peddling inaccurate information for their own political gain. We do, however, know that climate change and population growth mean that the risks of more discharges will increase, which is why the government has taken significant action.
Again, I did not vote to allow sewage to be pumped into our rivers and seas, we have had storm overflows in this country for at least 150 years and I voted to actually deal with the discharge problem in a pragmatic and realistic way. Conservatives take action, Lib Dems write letters.
We are not letting water companies get away with this and have been repeatedly clear that water companies’ reliance on overflows is unacceptable and they must significantly reduce how much sewage they discharge as a priority. Our regulators have also launched the largest criminal and civil investigations into water company sewage discharges resulting in the largest fine on South West Water in their history.
This is the first government that is taking action to fix the problem and it would be helpful if rather than inciting division and hate, circulating information that is simply untrue, that the Lib Dems recognised this and supported the Government in its endeavours.”
