Labour has been accused of copying the Tories’ measures to clean the nation’s waterways by announcing that company fines and penalties will fund improvements in the sector. The Government is expected to announce on Thursday that over £100million in fines levied against water companies since October 2023 will be reinvested into the industry.
This means that millions of pounds from penalties for polluting water firms will not be given to the Treasury to be spent on things other than fixing the nation’s waterways. Future fines imposed on water firms will also be protected for use on restoration projects only.
In a post on X on Wednesday night, clean water campaigner Feargal Sharkey said: “I hear government is about to announce plans to use water company fines to fund water improvements. Shame the previous Tory govt announced exactly that idea in April 2024 then. Oops!”
A water restoration fund was set up by the Conservative government to ensure that polluting water firms paid for the damage they caused.
At least £11million in fines and penalties from April 2022 to October 2023 was made available to the scheme.
James Wallace, CEO of River Action, said: “Ring-fencing water company fines for river restoration is a welcome move – but it’s hardly new. The previous Government pledged this, only for the new Chancellor to backtrack, prioritising growth over nature.
“If this Government is serious about making polluters pay, it must give the Department for Environment all the funding and powers it needs to enforce the law, starting with putting Thames Water into a Special Administration Regime and replacing private profiteering with public accountability.
“With Defra’s core budget down nearly 3% in last week’s Spending Review, serious questions remain about how the Environment Agency will be in a position to keep tabs on pollution events and enforce the law. Regulators need boots on the ground, legal resources and access to courts, backed by consistent funding and most importantly, political will.”
Environment Secretary Steve Reed added: “We inherited a broken water system with record levels of sewage being pumped into waters.
“But the era of profiting from failure is over. A record 81 criminal investigations have been launched into water companies under this government and Ofwat recently announced the largest fine ever handed to a water company in history.
“This Government will invest money collected through fines into local projects to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.”