>**Polluting water companies will be automatically fined under Labour plans**
>
>**Plans being considered by Sir Keir Starmer for the party’s general election manifesto with firms that pay dividends likely to be fined more**
>
>Water companies will be automatically fined every time they dump sewage into rivers and seas, under plans being considered by Labour for its general election manifesto.
>
>Firms that pay dividends but continue to repeatedly pollute waterways could be levied with higher fines than those who do not reward shareholders, under the proposals.
>
>Automatic fines would have meant water companies being fined 301,000 times last year alone — one for each spillage formally logged by the Environment Agency. By contrast, just four water companies were prosecuted for breaching overflow permits between 2018 and 2022 by the regulator, which in the current system decides when to levy fines.
>
>The Daily Telegraph understands the plan for automatic fines was included in Labour’s National Policy Forum document when it was approved last month. That means it is being formally considered by Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, for the manifesto for next year’s general election. Labour is the bookmakers’ favourite to win.
>
>The Telegraph is running a Clean Rivers Campaign aimed at improving water quality by shining a light on sewage spillages and calling for urgent action.Labour’s automatic fines proposal is one of a string of tough measures aimed at convincing water companies to clamp down on sewage spillages.
>
>Others include striking off water company directors who continually breach and ignore their responsibilities and introducing mandatory monitoring of sewage outlets.
>
>Jim McMahon, Labour’s shadow environment secretary, told The Telegraph: “The Tories have not only given the green light for water companies to continue dumping raw sewage, but they’ve also allowed them to be rewarded for it, letting firms and bosses simply walk away with bumper dividends and bonuses.“And to add insult to injury, the Tories think its families around the country that should foot the bill for cleaning up their mess.“The next Labour government will bring an end to the Tory sewage scandal by delivering mandatory monitoring on all sewage outlets, introducing automatic fines for discharges paid for by eroding dividends, setting ambitious targets for stopping systematic sewage dumping and ensuring that water bosses are legally held to account for negligence.”
>
>**Labour proposals go further than Conservative policies in government**
>
>Senior Tory figures have defended their record on sewage spillages, pointing to raising the top level of fines companies can face for spillages to £250 million.
>
>Currently the Labour proposals go further than the Tory policies in government in terms of their severity in cracking down on water companies that break rules with sewage releases.
>
>The issue of spillages into Britain’s rivers and seas — a reflection of much of the country’s Victorian-era sewage system — has jumped up the political agenda in recent years. Conservative MPs who were frustrated that more was not being done to rectify the problem have rebelled at a number of points in the last two years, forcing concessions from the Government.
>
>The Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats are all pushing proposals to scale back the problem — a reflection of how widespread voter anger is about spillages. The exact details for how Labour’s automatic fines system will work are being ironed out behind the scenes, with a fuller picture expected to be unveiled at the party’s autumn conference.
>
>One area being scrutinised is how to make a connection between the amount of money a water company pays its shareholders in dividends and how much they would be fined.
>
>**Therese Coffey defends Government record**
>
>Therese Coffey, the Environment Secretary, defended the Conservatives’ record on the issue after more than a decade in power in a speech back in February.
>
>Ms Coffey said: “People are concerned about the impacts of sewage entering our rivers and seas and I am crystal clear that this is totally unacceptable. “We need to be clear that this is not a new problem.
>
>Storm overflows have existed for over a century. The law has always allowed for discharges, subject to regulation. That is how our Victorian sewers are built – wastewater and rain are carried in the same pipe. When it reaches a certain height, it pours into another pipe and into rivers.
>
>“And while we have done more about it than any other government – we were the first government to require companies to start comprehensively monitoring spillage so that we could see what was actually going on – there is still significant work to do.”
>
>A Conservative Party source said: “Labour’s plan would simply let water companies off the hook. A basic policy of automatic fines would lead to the bare minimum when it comes to punishment. Meanwhile, the Government is speeding up prosecutions and we are making sure that the polluter always pays. More empty words from Labour, and a lack of understanding of the policy.”
>
>- Ben Riley-Smith, Political Editor
Or they could hold the leadership of water companies liable with heavy fines
Fines mean nothing to these companies. They will just write off the fines as general business expenses, then increase prices to compensate. Unless the CEOs are held personally liable with repercussions that do not involve money (ie prison sentences) then nothing will change.
Better yet, fine the company and hold the CEOs legally liable with improvement.
This should be a criminal offence and water companies should be nationalised.
Labour should rather ensure that Companies House Act 2006 is enforceable and that HMRC can demand any unlawful dividends to be paid back by the shareholders.
Fines are just another cost of doing business in this case a very profitable business with zero competition.
I’m sure this will get downvoted but sadly the key statement in there is ‘Mandatory monitoring of all outfalls’.
If that means flowmeters on every outfalls with live data collection and reporting then we’re miles away from that. There are 22,000 outfall in the England and Wales and install monitoring on them all will cost billions. Even if it is mandated it’ll be years, if not decades, until they are all installed.
The issue then is without that defined monitoring it’ll become an incredibly grey area.
Who will report the Spills in the interim?
The definition of legal and illegal spills will need to be looked at unless the expectation is to make all spills illegal. Given that the legality of a spill is currently tied in with the weather (specifically what is heavy rainfall or a storm etc) and sewage capacity design is derived from weather models and urban planning arrangements (both effectively provided by the Government) then it’s going to get messy.
Something absolutely needs to be done about spills but this sounds an awful lot like a populist commitment from Labour rather than something they can actually deliver.
For absolutely clarity I absolutely loathe the current government, but it doesn’t mean Labour should be able to promise any old idea.
I’m sure they’ll find a way to pass the costs of the fines onto the customers
8 comments
Article:
>**Polluting water companies will be automatically fined under Labour plans**
>
>**Plans being considered by Sir Keir Starmer for the party’s general election manifesto with firms that pay dividends likely to be fined more**
>
>Water companies will be automatically fined every time they dump sewage into rivers and seas, under plans being considered by Labour for its general election manifesto.
>
>Firms that pay dividends but continue to repeatedly pollute waterways could be levied with higher fines than those who do not reward shareholders, under the proposals.
>
>Automatic fines would have meant water companies being fined 301,000 times last year alone — one for each spillage formally logged by the Environment Agency. By contrast, just four water companies were prosecuted for breaching overflow permits between 2018 and 2022 by the regulator, which in the current system decides when to levy fines.
>
>The Daily Telegraph understands the plan for automatic fines was included in Labour’s National Policy Forum document when it was approved last month. That means it is being formally considered by Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, for the manifesto for next year’s general election. Labour is the bookmakers’ favourite to win.
>
>The Telegraph is running a Clean Rivers Campaign aimed at improving water quality by shining a light on sewage spillages and calling for urgent action.Labour’s automatic fines proposal is one of a string of tough measures aimed at convincing water companies to clamp down on sewage spillages.
>
>Others include striking off water company directors who continually breach and ignore their responsibilities and introducing mandatory monitoring of sewage outlets.
>
>Jim McMahon, Labour’s shadow environment secretary, told The Telegraph: “The Tories have not only given the green light for water companies to continue dumping raw sewage, but they’ve also allowed them to be rewarded for it, letting firms and bosses simply walk away with bumper dividends and bonuses.“And to add insult to injury, the Tories think its families around the country that should foot the bill for cleaning up their mess.“The next Labour government will bring an end to the Tory sewage scandal by delivering mandatory monitoring on all sewage outlets, introducing automatic fines for discharges paid for by eroding dividends, setting ambitious targets for stopping systematic sewage dumping and ensuring that water bosses are legally held to account for negligence.”
>
>**Labour proposals go further than Conservative policies in government**
>
>Senior Tory figures have defended their record on sewage spillages, pointing to raising the top level of fines companies can face for spillages to £250 million.
>
>Currently the Labour proposals go further than the Tory policies in government in terms of their severity in cracking down on water companies that break rules with sewage releases.
>
>The issue of spillages into Britain’s rivers and seas — a reflection of much of the country’s Victorian-era sewage system — has jumped up the political agenda in recent years. Conservative MPs who were frustrated that more was not being done to rectify the problem have rebelled at a number of points in the last two years, forcing concessions from the Government.
>
>The Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats are all pushing proposals to scale back the problem — a reflection of how widespread voter anger is about spillages. The exact details for how Labour’s automatic fines system will work are being ironed out behind the scenes, with a fuller picture expected to be unveiled at the party’s autumn conference.
>
>One area being scrutinised is how to make a connection between the amount of money a water company pays its shareholders in dividends and how much they would be fined.
>
>**Therese Coffey defends Government record**
>
>Therese Coffey, the Environment Secretary, defended the Conservatives’ record on the issue after more than a decade in power in a speech back in February.
>
>Ms Coffey said: “People are concerned about the impacts of sewage entering our rivers and seas and I am crystal clear that this is totally unacceptable. “We need to be clear that this is not a new problem.
>
>Storm overflows have existed for over a century. The law has always allowed for discharges, subject to regulation. That is how our Victorian sewers are built – wastewater and rain are carried in the same pipe. When it reaches a certain height, it pours into another pipe and into rivers.
>
>“And while we have done more about it than any other government – we were the first government to require companies to start comprehensively monitoring spillage so that we could see what was actually going on – there is still significant work to do.”
>
>A Conservative Party source said: “Labour’s plan would simply let water companies off the hook. A basic policy of automatic fines would lead to the bare minimum when it comes to punishment. Meanwhile, the Government is speeding up prosecutions and we are making sure that the polluter always pays. More empty words from Labour, and a lack of understanding of the policy.”
>
>- Ben Riley-Smith, Political Editor
Or they could hold the leadership of water companies liable with heavy fines
Fines mean nothing to these companies. They will just write off the fines as general business expenses, then increase prices to compensate. Unless the CEOs are held personally liable with repercussions that do not involve money (ie prison sentences) then nothing will change.
Better yet, fine the company and hold the CEOs legally liable with improvement.
This should be a criminal offence and water companies should be nationalised.
Labour should rather ensure that Companies House Act 2006 is enforceable and that HMRC can demand any unlawful dividends to be paid back by the shareholders.
Fines are just another cost of doing business in this case a very profitable business with zero competition.
I’m sure this will get downvoted but sadly the key statement in there is ‘Mandatory monitoring of all outfalls’.
If that means flowmeters on every outfalls with live data collection and reporting then we’re miles away from that. There are 22,000 outfall in the England and Wales and install monitoring on them all will cost billions. Even if it is mandated it’ll be years, if not decades, until they are all installed.
The issue then is without that defined monitoring it’ll become an incredibly grey area.
Who will report the Spills in the interim?
The definition of legal and illegal spills will need to be looked at unless the expectation is to make all spills illegal. Given that the legality of a spill is currently tied in with the weather (specifically what is heavy rainfall or a storm etc) and sewage capacity design is derived from weather models and urban planning arrangements (both effectively provided by the Government) then it’s going to get messy.
Something absolutely needs to be done about spills but this sounds an awful lot like a populist commitment from Labour rather than something they can actually deliver.
For absolutely clarity I absolutely loathe the current government, but it doesn’t mean Labour should be able to promise any old idea.
I’m sure they’ll find a way to pass the costs of the fines onto the customers