
Environment secretary pledges to cut sewage pollution from water companies in half by 2030
The target - which is compared to 2024 levels - is to be announced by Steve Reed on Sunday morning - when the Labour minister is also set to appear on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.
The government says it is the first time ministers have set a clear target to reduce sewage pollution.
The target is part of the government's efforts to respond to record sewage spills and rising water bills.
Ministers are also aiming to cut phosphorus - which causes harmful algae blooms - in half by 2028.
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Mr Reed said families had watched rivers, coastlines and lakes "suffer from record levels of pollution".
"My pledge to you: the government will halve sewage pollution from water companies by the end of the decade," he added.
The announcement comes ahead of the publication of the Independent Water Commission's landmark review into the sector on Monday morning.
The commission was established by the UK and Welsh governments as part of their joint response to failures in the industry, but ministers have already said they'll stop short of nationalising water companies.
On Friday, the Environment Agency published data which showed serious pollution incidents caused by water firms increased by 60% in England last year, compared with 2023.
Meanwhile, the watchdog has received a record £189m to support hundreds of enforcement officers for inspections and prosecutions.
"One of the largest infrastructure projects in England's history will clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good," Mr Reed said.
But the Conservatives have accused the Labour government of having so far "simply copied previous Conservative government policy".
"Labour's water plans must also include credible proposals to improve the water system's resilience to droughts, without placing an additional burden on bill payers and taxpayers," shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins added.
The Rivers Trust says sewage and wastewater discharges have taken place over the weekend, amid thunderstorms in parts of the UK.
Discharges take place to prevent the system from becoming overwhelmed, with storm overflows used to release extra wastewater and rainwater into rivers and seas.
Water company Southern Water said storm releases are part of the way sewage and drainage systems across the world protect homes, schools and hospitals from flooding.
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13 minutes ago
- The Guardian
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The Guardian
13 minutes ago
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The National
23 minutes ago
- The National
Steve Reed's water claims that of an incompetent charlatan
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The Independent Water Commission found that 66% of Scotland's water bodies were of good ecological status, compared with 16.1% in England and 29.9% in Wales. READ MORE: Labour panned for foreign aid cuts as women and children to be hit hardest It is also worth noting that Scotland has some 32% of the UK land mass, is the part of the UK with the highest annual rainfall and has many more water bodies than England and Wales. Loch Ness alone is popularly claimed to contain more fresh water than the combined total of the rivers and lakes of England and Wales, holding 7.4 cubic km of clean Scottish water. Yet Loch Ness is neither Scotland's largest loch by surface area (that's Loch Lomond), nor is it the deepest – that's Loch Morar, whose maximum depth is 310m (1017 ft). Scotland contains truly vast amounts of water, most of which is in good condition. 87% of Scotland's entire water environment is assessed by SEPA as having a high or good classification for water quality, up from 82% in 2014. The claim about Loch Ness (below) containing more fresh water than all of England's lakes and rivers may just be a popular myth. It's not easy to find reliable statistics on the amount of water in all of England's rivers and lakes, but since the English water companies abstract 4.6 cubic km of water annually and don't extract every last drop of water – otherwise there would be no lakes or rivers left in England – the popular boast about Loch Ness seems unlikely to be true. However, what is unquestionably true, is that Scottish Water must manage much more water than all the water companies of England combined. It does so successfully, without siphoning off large amounts of cash for directors and shareholders and invests back into Scotland's water infrastructure. 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