Prime Minister Rishi Sunak
(Picture: PA Wire)The Prime Minister has hit back at reports the Government is reconsidering super fines for water companies that dump sewage in Britain’s rivers.
Rishi Sunak said he wants to see firms that pollute UK waterways and seas “held to account”.
It comes amid reports Environment Secretary Therese Coffey is reconsidering plans to hit water companies with penalties of up to £250 million for spilling sewage — a thousand times more than the current maximum penalty.
“I think that reporting is categorically not true,” Mr Sunak told reporters during a visit to Oldham.
“Actually I would welcome tougher fines for water companies and that's what we're putting in place.
“Not only are we holding them to account for putting in place the largest investment in our water infrastructure in decades, £56billion of investment, we will hold them to account for their part in reducing the overflows and there will be very significant fines for them if they don't do their part in this.”
Feargal Sharkey has backed hitting water companies with super fines.
The rock star-turned-environmental campaigner said it would be a “disaster” not to give the Environment Agency a “massive overhaul” and more powers to punish firms that pollute Britain’s waterways and seas.
Undertones star Sharkey told Times Radio: “The largest fine the Environment Agency can issue itself is £250,000. A few years back Anglian Water paid £1.9 billion of dividends to shareholders. Last December, Thames Water announced they made almost half-a-billion-pounds profit in just six months.
“And the biggest fine the Environment Agency can issue is £250,000. The whole situation is a total disaster.”
Just six per cent of UK rivers are on course to be in good ecological condition in four years time, while nearly a third of Britain’s bathing beaches need improvement, according to Government analysis.
Water companies disposing of sewage and the farming industry are two of the biggest river and sea polluters.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said water companies “must be held to account” for poor performance.
It issued record fines totalling more than £100 million in 2021 after some 370,000 discharges of raw sewage into UK rivers.
A Defra spokesman said: “We are clear that water companies must be held to account for poor performance.
“That’s why we are making it easier for regulators to enforce fines and hold them to account. More detail on this will be set out in our consultation in the spring.”
Labour would not pay bonuses to the bosses of water companies that pump raw sewage into the UK’s rivers and seas, deputy leader Angela Rayner has said.
She told ITV: “We would enforce the current laws which they’re breaching, the current situation where they know they shouldn’t be doing it and they are doing it, we would enforce and make sure they’re not doing it.
“And no, we wouldn’t be paying them bonuses when they’re carrying out activities that they know they shouldn’t be doing.
“We would be enforcing the current regulations and the law that governs them.”
