Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan - announced on 26th August 2022
Water companies will face the strictest targets on pollution from sewage ever under a new plan to tackle sewage discharges in our waters, set out by government today.
The government’s plan will require them to deliver their largest ever environmental infrastructure investment - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years - into a long term programme to tackle storm sewage discharges by 2050. The plan frontloads action in particularly important and sensitive areas including designated bathing waters and high priority ecological sites.
The plan will be reviewed in 2027 to consider where the programme can be accelerated, taking account of innovation and efficiencies and how the programme is impacting bills. Under this plan there will be no changes to bills until 2025.
This plan builds on £3.1 billion investment from water companies to improve storm overflows between 2020 and 2025
A raft of measures have also been brought forward in the Environment Act to tackle sewage discharges, including the requirement for greater transparency from water companies on their storm overflow data.
There have been 54 prosecutions against water companies since 2015, securing fines of nearly £140 million.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/toughest-targets-ever-introduced-will-crack-down-on-sewage-spills
I have attached to this page the full 54 page plan and the DEFRA factsheet accompanying it.
Water UK Industry Announcement - 18th May 2023
There have understandably been significant and growing concerns about the condition of our rivers and beaches over the last few months and I know this is an issue about which that Parliamentarians across the political spectrum care deeply.
It is for this reason that I am writing today to draw your attention to a statement made by Water UK, the trade body representing the water and sewage industry.
We should have given this issue much more attention. We should have acted much faster to recognise the impact of sewage spills on people’s enjoyment of rivers and beaches, and put forward plans more quickly to deal with that. We have not shown the leadership that customers expect.
The industry has listened and heard, and today we say: we are sorry.
We want to put things right. And while it will take time to overhaul 350,000 miles of sewers, we have today set out a plan to move this work forward. The people you represent are right to demand this gets sorted out, and we are taking action with:
- A National Overflows Plan which confirms our readiness to invest an additional £10bn this decade, more than tripling (and adding to) current levels of investment of £3.1bn between 2020 and 2025. If approved by regulators, we expect that, by 2030, this initial wave of investment will cut sewage overflows by up to 140,000 each year, compared to the level in 2020.
- An independently chaired National Environment Data Hub which will, for the first time in the world, provide open data, available to everyone, on the performance of all 15,000 sewage overflows in England. This will give any member of the public the ability to see in ‘near real time’ (within the hour) information on what is happening to any overflow in England, and thereby giving people a stronger ability to hold the industry to account.
- We will help the roll out of new river swimming areas by supporting up to 100 communities in drawing up plans, applying for legal protection, covering the costs of pre-submission water testing and working with regulators to fix local sources of pollution.
Key Points
Storm Overflows Plan
• Published on 26 August. This sets out the specific and time bound targets water companies need to achieve.
• This Plan did not change the law: what was illegal before the publication of the Plan remained illegal.
• What the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan does is to set out the largest investment programme ever undertaken by water companies. This will address sewage discharges from storm overflows.
• Published on 26 August. This sets out the specific and time bound targets water companies need to achieve.
• This Plan did not change the law: what was illegal before the publication of the Plan remained illegal.
• What the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan does is to set out the largest investment programme ever undertaken by water companies. This will address sewage discharges from storm overflows.
Duke of Wellington amendment:*
• During the passage of the Environment Act through parliament, the Duke of Wellington proposed an amendment to ensure water companies take all reasonable steps to ensure untreated sewage is not discharged from storm overflows.
• It was not clear what would constitute a reasonable step, how far companies would need to go to achieve it, or what impact this would have on consumer bills.
• Government passed an alternative amendment, which requires water companies to achieve progressive reductions in the harm caused by storm overflows
• Neither the Duke of Wellington amendment, nor the duty passed by government is specific on what needs to be achieved / be when – that level of detail is set out in the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan
Environment update - Statement made on 25 April 2023
This Government has been clear that sewage discharging into our rivers is completely unacceptable. In August 2022 this Government published the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, with an accompanying impact assessment. It’s a plan that sets stringent targets to protect people and the environment. This will require water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history, totalling an estimated £56 billion.
Today, we are announcing plans to enshrine the plan further in law. Through the Environment Act 2021, we will legislate for a clear target on storm overflow reduction in line with our Plan. A clear, credible and costed legally binding target will add to our transparent and determined approach to solve this issue, whilst keeping consumer bills low. This will also be backed by existing separate interim targets for bathing waters and our most precious habitats. This will build on the direction we placed on water companies to introduce monitoring in 2013, which will reach 100% by the end of this year. We will also deliver our commitment to further reform penalties to make them easier to apply, including proposing an unlimited penalty. We have also demanded that water companies provide action plans on every storm overflow by the summer.