Regulators will soon have new powers to take tougher and faster action to crack down on Southern Water damaging the Isle of Wight’s environment, thanks to new legislation introduced by the Labour Government.
The Water (Special Measures) Bill delivers on Labour’s manifesto pledges to clean up the water sector, including significantly increasing the ability of the Environment Agency to bring forward criminal charges against law-breaking water executives who fail to co-operate, or obstruct investigations.
The new legislation will also ban the payment of bonuses to water bosses if they fail to meet high standards to protect the environment, their consumers and their company’s finances.
Other measures in the Bill include severe and automatic fines for a range of offences, including allowing regulators to issue penalties more quickly, without having to direct resources to lengthy investigations. It will also introduce independent monitoring of every sewage outlet, with water companies required to publish real-time data for all emergency overflows. Discharges will have to be reported within an hour of the initial spill.
In 2023, a total of 17,340 hours of sewage spilt onto the Island’s coastline, including 5,000 hours in Cowes alone.
Richard Quigley, MP for Isle of Wight Wes, has said:
“After 14 years of Conservative failure, raw toxic sewage continues to be pumped into the Solent, polluting many of the Isle of Wight’s most popular beaches. In 2023, the Island had the third most polluted river in the UK, with the Cowes/Gurnard area ranked as the seventh most polluted bathing area in England and Wales. This is an unacceptable situation for a community that relies on clean waters for tourism, recreation, and local livelihoods.
“That is why the Labour government has introduced immediate action to end the disgraceful behaviour of water companies and their bosses.
Article continues below this advertisement “Under this Labour Government, water executives will no longer line their own pockets with inflated bonuses whilst pumping out this filth. If they refuse to comply, they could end up in the dock and face prison time.
“This Bill is a major step towards fixing our broken water system. And as an Island MP, I thoroughly welcome these changes. The Labour Government will outline further legislation to fundamentally transform how the water industry is run and speed up the delivery of upgrades to our sewage infrastructure to clean up our waterways for good.”
Too many people, more to come with more building and a private company looking after what used to be a service but is now a money making machine focused on profit.
Some things in this world need to be service based, e.g. the basics, water supply, sewage, electric and gas, “the utilities”. It all went wrong when they were privatised.
Mrs Thatcher and her successors failed to appreciate the concept of the “natural monopoly” and gave ours away to anybody they fancied, including Arab states, Australians and others with zero interest in Britain.
It’s pointless fining these companies – they have no choice but to recover the fines through customers’ bills. Holding executives to account would be a better option, if only it happened.
Of course, they should really be not-for-profits under state ownership, but even the Labour Party won’t go that far, will they, Quiggers?
They damn well ought to; it’s what they campaigned on.
‘Ban the bonuses’…but not the dividends? Thames Water, deeply in financial sewage and not fulfilled it’s repairs and infrastructure agreements paid their shareholders roughly £180m in the last period, in spite of being in the red and threatening to up bills by over 50%. The fine imposed was £18m. I’d guess they factor that in as a business expense (tax deductible of course). Money well spent. The trouble is, by the time a government takeover is necessary the profit-driven companies based abroad have already siphoned off any value and allowed the infrastructure of the water systems to rot.
They keep building houses and still keep shoving both rainwater and sewage down the same pipes only a lot more of it, nothing much has changed over the years only the design of the outfalls so it dsoes not appear so obvious. I can remember back in the early 60’s off Gurnard when the outfall used to erupt sometimes at low tide about 15ft into the air. We were advised if swimming to keep your mouth shut!
Could always swim in Bembridge
Lol, sewage from the houseboats.