No action on sewage till 2038 – MP Jeremy Quin votes to do nothing
Horsham MP Jeremy Quin joined his fellow Conservatives to vote through a "shamefully low" target for cutting sewage dumping and reducing harmful phosphates in our rivers.1
Shadow Cabinet Member for the Environment, Cllr John Milne (Lib Dem, Roffey North): "This is nothing short of a crisis, but the response is to do little or nothing. I can only assume that the health of Horsham District’s rivers are not a priority for Jeremy Quin."
292 Conservative MPs backed a new target which will continue to allow water companies to dump harmful substances in our rivers until 2038.2
The Government had promised to bringing in binding, environmental targets in the new Environment Act on 25th January. But by giving privatised water companies 15 years to take action, it guarantees that our current sewage crisis will continue unabated.
Sewage dumping leads to excess phosphates.
In a spiral of destruction, excess levels of phosphates feed harmful algae:
- Algae "blooms" and blocks out light for other aquatic plants and animals
- As bacteria breaks down the decaying plant life, oxygen levels are depleted
- Fish and other wildlife cannot survive
"It’s another Conservative Government attack on nature." (Cllr John Milne)
"The Government promised us ambitious targets on protecting our air, water and precious biodiversity. Instead, they have given in once again to lobbying from the privatised water companies. Southern Water – responsible for the majority of Horsham District’s water and sewage – continues to report a profit even though it is one of the country’s worst polluters.”
- In the last two years, water companies in England dumped raw sewage 775,568 times lasting 5.7 million hours.3
- In 2021, water companies discharged raw sewage 947 times lasting 10,063 hours in Horsham District alone, of which Southern Water was responsible for 926 times, 9978 hours, according to The Rivers Trust.
- Southern Water was handed a record £90 million fine after pleading guilty to 6,971 unpermitted sewage discharges which polluted rivers and coastal waters in Kent, Hampshire and Sussex from 2010-2015.4
- Southern Water reported a £16.0 million profit in their most recent last annual report, and that was after the £90.0 million fine.5
- These new regulations would permit dumping to continue by water companies for 15 more years.
Liberal Democrat MPs voted against these weak targets in an attempt to force the Government to set far stronger targets.
View more about our campaign and the Conservatives’ record of inaction, as well as see a map of sewage dumping locations across Horsham District, on our website at www.horshamlibdems.org.uk/sewage.
References:
1"The Environmental Targets (Water) (England) Regulations 2022" SI passed today:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2022/9780348242911/regulation/10
2List of Conservative MPs who voted in favour of the 15 year target for tackling sewage:
https://votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Commons/Division/1462#ayes
3The Rivers Trust “Raw Sewage in our Rivers”: https://theriverstrust.org/key-issues/sewage-in-rivers
4Environment Agency, Press Release: Record £90m fine for Southern Water following EA prosecution: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/record-90m-fine-for-southern-water-following-ea-prosecution
5Southern Water, Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022: https://www.southernwater.co.uk/media/7222/annual-report-and-financial-statements-2021-22.pdf