The deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, has spoken out on BBC Question Time over the long running issue of dumping sewage into water sources. Calling for a ‘sewage tax’ and a ‘freeze to prices for water bills’, she said that the Liberal Democrats had been trying to raise awareness of the topic in parliament for years.
Daisy Cooper MP, LD, joined Mark Spencer, the Conservative MP for Sherwood, who currently serves as the Minister of State for Food, Farming and Fisheries, Bridget Phillipson, the Labour MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, who serves as Shadow Secretary of State for Education under Kier Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet and Timothy Montgomerie, a British political activist, blogger and columnist.
There were many topics discussed on this evenings episode of the hit political show, including ‘How do we help universities survive their financial crisis?’ and ‘Should we welcome the intervention of the International Criminal Court in Gaza’, but perhaps those poignant and controversial close to home subject of conversation – ‘What should be done about sewage spills in our waters?’.
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The BBC report that in England in 2023, water companies released record spills of raw sewage into the sea and rivers. According to the Environment Agency, there were 3.6 million hours of spills, compared to 1.75 million hours in 2022.
Water UK, the industry body for sewerage companies, said this was “unacceptable”, but argued that the record levels were due to heavy rain and increased data collection. However, the Environment Agency said that increased rainfall does not override water companies’ responsibility “to manage storm overflows in line with legal requirements”.
In a response that was well received by the audience, Daisy Cooper MP (LD) suggested that bonuses at water companies should be banned and a tax imposed on those dumping sewage.
She said: “Liberal Democrats have been leading on this issue for around three years trying to raise awareness for it in parliament. We have said very clearly “we need to stop the sewage dumping”.
“And there’s a few things you can do to do that. First, you ban the bonuses, immediately. Secondly you create a sewage tax and make the water companies pay to clean up their own mess.
“You scrap Ofwat (The Water Services Regulation Authority) because it has been proven to be a rubbish regulator and replace it with a real regulator with teeth. To freeze prices for water bills, and then change the structure of our water companies so that they become public benefit companies, so they are forced by law to put environmental principles over profit. That’s how we do it.”
Alternative text: The link below is a Twitter video embed of Daisy Cooper on BBC Question Time.
Fellow MP, Bridget Phillipson (LB), said that the sewage controversy was a “total scandal”. She said: “We’re in a situation where there hasn’t been proper reporting about the number of discharges, we absolutely need to see tougher regulation, more fines and more firmer action on this.
“My part of the world, the north east of England has got an amazing coastline, all of us should be able to enjoy that and take our kids there and not have to worry about getting sick because of what’s been pumped to our beaches. So there is no way that water company bosses should be getting big bonuses whilst all of this is going on.”
Alternative text: The link below is a Twitter video embed of Bridget Phillipson on BBC Question Time.
But the Conservatives’ representative, Mark Spencer MP said that water companies “are being held to account” over sewage infrastructure.
In response to Bridget he said: “Do you know what I’ve been waiting for these moments. Now we’re into a General Election campaign, suddenly the Labour Party can’t say when faced with a question “what would you do”, they can no longer say “well I wouldn’t do what the current Government’s done and that was a complete blank space”.
He went onto say that from Victorian times to when Lord Richard Benyon came into power as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Natural Environment, Water and Rural Affairs from May 2010 to October 2013, only seven per cent of sewage discharges were being monitored. Compared to 100 per cent in 2024.
When asked how the Conservative Party were solving the issue Mr Spencer said: “We started with stronger regulation, so that those water companies are held to account. Started with more inspectors, so that there are more inspectors within the environment agency to make sure that those people in the water companies are being held to account.
Regarding the billions of pounds needed to fix the infrastructure for responsible waste disposal, Fiona Bruce then asked: “Who’s going to be paying for that?”
To which Mr Spencer replied: “They {the water companies} have come forward with £60bn over the next 25 years to invest in that infrastructure to make sure that we do not start to solve this huge challenge. All of the water companies together have committed to £60bn worth of investment over the next 20 years to put this right, and it is a massive challenge to put right.”
However, not everybody was convinced of any of the panellists responses. One audience member said that the public have been “let down” by the action of water companies.
Saying: “You guys are gonna raise the money from the water companies, correct? Thames Water were on the verge of going bust last year, we have been let down by the Government, we have been let down by the owners of these water companies, we’ve been let down by the directors of these companies.
“The directors of these companies, if you look at the water industry as a whole it’s like the perfect business model. Their market is the whole of the UK, everyone who owns a home, every business. Their customers are actually forced to use their company. There’s zero competition.
“And top of it, they’re selling a product that’s made up of 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface. If you cannot get that right, you should not be running a business period.”