The Liberal Democrats have called for “more than just words” to stop sewage being spilled into rivers and seas, as the Government restated its pledge to improve the water industry.
The party’s environment spokesman and former leader Tim Farron urged ministers to introduce “practical solutions” to keep rivers clean and safe.
The Liberal Democrats tabled a Commons motion calling on the Government to take “urgent action to end the sewage scandal”, including the introduction of a new “Blue Flag status” for rivers and chalk streams.
The proposal is designed to give waterways greater protection against sewage dumping and ensure the public knows when rivers are clean and safe.
In response, Environment Secretary Steve Reed said the amount of sewage entering rivers, lakes and seas was a “national disgrace”. He said it was wrong parents had to worry about the health of their children if they were playing in rivers or seas.
Mr Farron told the Commons: “Our proposal today aims to highlight the scandal of the pollution of our waterways and it calls for some practical solutions that will make a difference.
“The Government’s recent Water Act was a step in the right direction following the failure of the last Conservative government to take meaningful action.
“Yet that Act was surely also a missed opportunity for the radical transformation of regulation and of ownership that is essential if we’re going to clean up our waterways and clean up the water industry as a whole.
“Sir Jon Cunliffe’s review gives us the hope that a more ambitious second water Bill might be coming, but there is no guarantee of that so our job as the constructive opposition in this place is to hold the Government to account and urge them to make the big changes that Britain voted for last July.”
Mr Farron, whose constituency includes Lake Windermere in the Lake District, added: “Politics is a great calling, it allows us in this case to establish the structures that will enable that stewardship of our waterways to be effective, to mean more than just words, but to mean practical change for the better.
“Our motion today gives the House the opportunity to do practical good, and to do so now without further dither or delay.”
Mr Reed said the current level of discharge into waterways was a “toxic result of years of failure by the previous Conservative government”.
He said more than £25 million was paid to chief executives of water companies during the last parliament. MPs heard the Environment Agency had its funding cut by half between 2010 and 2019, which led to a fall in water bosses being prosecuted.
He said: “Instead of fixing our sewage system before a problem turned into a crisis, the Conservatives stood back and let water companies divert millions of pounds of their customers’ money into the pockets of their bosses and their shareholders.”
Labour tabled an amendment that rewrote the Liberal Democrat motion, instead making reference to the Government “inheriting a broken water system,” and that ministers had taken “tough special measures” to clear up rivers, lakes and seas.
Mr Reed highlighted new powers introduced by the Water (Special Measures) Bill, including water companies having to publish information on the frequency and duration of discharges from storm overflows, and action plans on how they will reduce them.
“These measures give the water regulators new powers to hold water companies to account and ensure customers and the environment always come first. We can, and we will turn the water sector around,” he said.
Shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins said: “We all know and agree that there are fundamental problems facing the water and sewerage industry. A drainage and sewage system that was first built in the Victorian era does not meet the needs of the population that it must now serve, or the pressures of more frequent and severe weather events.”
Ms Atkins joked she was delighted to see Mr Reed in the Commons, adding “normally he’s running frit from farmers”.
She said: “We have had an underwhelming trickle, a review, yet another talking shop forum that hasn’t done anything other than have a meeting, and a Bill that has – as we described it during the passage of the Bill – set out much of what was already happening.
“And as with every other part of this Government, they had no plan and they are now trying to come up with one.”
MPs voted against the Liberal Democrats’ motion, 77 to 302, majority 225.
Labour’s amendment was then supported with MPs voting 301 to 69, majority 232.
