The sewage battle that could scupper Labour's new homes plan

Telegraph

18 hours ago

Sometimes, when there's heavy rain in Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire, waste bursts from the drain below Ian and Lilian McDonald's garden with such force that it lifts the manhole and its heavy concrete base in the middle of the couple's immaculate lawn, spewing gallons of ankle-deep dark brown sewage for days. 'It blasts out. It makes a pool that rotates with bog roll and everything in it,' says Ian, 87, a retired RAF worker, pointing to his pond at the bottom of the garden where most ends up. 'It's ruined the watercress. It keeps going till the pressure drops.'
Anglian Water, responsible for the water supply to the 350 houses in their tiny village, has no plan to improve its overburdened sewage system, which is not only wreaking havoc with drainage but also polluting the local river, the Great Ouse.
Yet in 2022, Buckinghamshire Council granted developers permission to build a further 153 houses here, which would place it under ever more strain. 'It's ludicrous to add more into this system which isn't coping at the moment,' says Lilian, 83, a retired teacher. 'Crackers,' concurs Ian, staring at the manhole in disbelief.
At first, a clause prohibited building before the sewage works – at capacity since 2015 – have been updated. But last year the developers, David Wilson Homes South Midlands, part of the UK's largest housebuilder Barratt Redrow, successfully fought for it to be amended – and once houses are built, water companies have a statutory duty to connect them to the sewage system, regardless of capacity.
However, under the planning terms nobody is allowed to move into the houses until there is sewage capacity for them, creating an absurd situation reflective of a wider national crisis, in which beleaguered water companies operating sewage systems no longer fit for purpose appear – to put it kindly – incapable of working coherently with councils under pressure to accommodate Labour's plans to build new 1.5 million homes by 2029 and developers doggedly seeking profit.
The Environment Agency found sewage spills more than doubled in 2023, from 1.75 million hours to 3.6 million hours, and last month Ofwat, the regulator for the water and sewerage sectors in England and Wales, fined Thames Water nearly £123 million for breaching rules relating to its wastewater operations.
Sewage not only 'suffocates fish because it's taking the oxygen out of the water,' says Dr Justin Neal, solicitor for environmental charity Wildfish, which has secured a judicial review at the High Court later this year, challenging the Maids Moreton planning permission. 'It kills plant life and insects. It destroys the ecosystem the fish depend on. We want to make sure that if there is house building there is capacity in the sewage works.' Neal describes poor sewage systems as 'ubiquitous' in England and Wales. 'There's a lack of capacity.'
Next door to the McDonald's home at the bottom of the hill Maids Moreton sits on, neighbour Bob Christopher, a retired insurance worker, shows me a memo from the council's environmental health officer to its planning department, declaring 'no objections' to the development 'from an Environmental Health point of view'.
Yet, according to the Environment Agency, sewage pollution is one reason the Great Ouse is failing to achieve 'good ecological status'. Bob, 80, says: 'It makes me cross. If the council turns a blind eye, I think the situation could get very serious.' Wife Georgie, 79, adds: 'We're trying to look after the environment, not make it worse.'
Anglian Water, too, seems keen to downplay the effects of the development. In an internal memo dated this March, released under the Freedom of Information Act and seen by The Telegraph, it says 'the additional foul flow generated by the proposed development would create an unacceptable risk of flooding to our existing customers and the environment.' Yet it's just a month later claims the exact opposite – that 'the additional foul flow from the proposed development would not create an unacceptable risk of flooding to our existing customers and the environment.' Anglian Water declined to explain its apparent U-turn.
Neal believes Ofwat, which, together with the Environment Agency, decides where sewage infrastructure investment is made, should prosecute Anglian Water as it did Thames Water, because the company is 'not in compliance'. Ofwat had already signed off on investment money for Anglian Water, he says, 'and it clearly hadn't been used for the sewage works.' An Ofwat spokesman says: 'Ofwat has an enforcement case against Anglian Water and its wastewater treatment which has not yet concluded. As such, the investigation is ongoing, and it is not appropriate for us to comment at this time.'
Now, adds Neal, 'the pressure will be on the council not to put any red lights up. They're worried about legal action from developers.' Nobody I speak to believes the council, which is allowing the houses to be sold, will enforce its own rule of no occupation. 'How does a buyer even know that they might not be able to live in their house? We're all scratching our heads,' says Kate Pryce, 50, a former solicitor and married mother-of-three, the unofficial leader of the residents' campaign group fighting the development, and now an unexpected expert in sewage. 'Houses are being built all over the country where there's no capacity on the basis that there's a statutory duty to connect once houses have been built. It is mad.'
We walk waist deep in nettles across a field to a storm discharge point in a nearby stream, from where untreated sewage that the local sewage plant, Buckingham Water Recycling Centre, has insufficient capacity for feeds into the Great Ouse. Kate points out murky shapes in the putrid water: 'This brown stuff is called sewage algae. That is your absolute evidence of sewage discharge.'
Back in the village, Sheilagh Rawlins shows me the 22-acre site of the planned development from the upstairs bedroom of the four-bedroom terrace she shares with husband Peter, a retired engineer. The view beyond the roses and spiraea bushes in her garden is bucolic. A tractor silages the hay in fields bordered by a wooded area. 'All those trees will go. That will all be concrete,' she says. A second judicial review challenging the development on the basis of the council's incorrect biodiversity net gain calculation is also due to be heard this year. She asks: 'How can you justify that as a biodiversity gain?'
Sheilagh, 62, a chemistry teacher, believes sought-after local grammar schools make the new houses a particularly lucrative prospect. 'It's people like us who've lived here 23 years that will end up with the mess,' she says, on the brink of tears. 'We are not Nimbys. This is about a council and a developer. It has been eye-wateringly painful to watch. What has to happen? Do we have to have an outbreak of dysentery and the village quarantined before somebody sits up and takes notice? It's so wrong. You would have thought regulations were in place to protect us.'
A spokesman for David Wilson Homes South Midlands said its development would lead to 'at least a 10 per cent uplift in biodiversity,' and generate a £3.5 million investment in local infrastructure, 'and we will create new, publicly accessible green open spaces with play areas, as well as jobs for the local community.' They added: 'We will ensure a programme of any wastewater upgrades required to support the development has been agreed with Anglian Water. It is also vital that water companies invest in the country's water and sewerage infrastructure so that we can build the homes the country needs, generating new jobs and driving economic growth.'
A spokesman for Anglian Water said: 'Although there is currently no dedicated scheme for upgrades at Buckingham Water Recycling Centre, we are currently reviewing and prioritising our growth portfolio for delivery over the next five years. This is a typical part of our planning process between investment cycles.'
Peter Strachan, Buckinghamshire council's deputy leader and cabinet member for planning, said its council 'follows the planning process rigorously as determined by nationally set guidance and legislation' and that, as its decision is now subject to judicial review 'it is not appropriate for the Council to comment further'.
After sewage spills on the McDonald's garden, Anglian Water staff are dispatched with soil, grass seed and disinfectant to clear the damage – a process that can take days but will likely seem small fry to the company in the event of a new development. If he does end up with 153 new neighbours, Ian predicts: 'They're in trouble.'