Caroline Voaden: Would you swim in a sewage filled sea?

Close your eyes and think of summer and you might envisage the sun, the beach, the sand, the cool escape of the waves rolling in, one after the other.

Sadly, these days, for nearly half of us, part of that vision will never become a reality. Thanks to the sewage crisis, 44% of people say they would never swim in the sea during summer. That is shocking, but what is worse is that this number has risen sharply by six percentage points in just two years.  

Despite the sewage crisis being in the national spotlight for years now, we have not seen the political and regulatory action needed to restore public confidence.  

In fact, what we have seen has had the opposite effect. It feels as though every week a new scandal embroils a water company. At the start of July, South West Water CEO Susan Davy retired, days after a devastating report on the company’s many failings by the regulator, Ofwat.  

And, literally as I am writing, new data has found that England’s water companies are overseeing more than 100 potentially illegal raw sewage spills a day into our rivers and seas, far more than previously thought.  

It is little wonder so many of us have lost faith and are now fearful of swimming in potentially polluted waters.  

I had hoped Labour would tackle this crisis with the urgency and seriousness it deserves. For 11 months of their first year in office, I was deeply disappointed. Towards the end, there was a glimmer of hope.  

In July, Sir Jon Cunliffe published his long awaited 465-page Water Independent Commission report, which laid bare the damage years of underinvestment, financial mismanagement and corporate greed has done to our water industry.  

A tally of 88 recommendations for fixing the industry shows just how much has gone wrong. All these recommendations could have serious ramifications for the industry. But I was pleased to see the Government immediately adopt the most significant one.  

Abolishing Ofwat has long been a Liberal Democrat policy. The regulator has proven itself to be weak and ineffective at holding rogue firms to account.  

Bringing together the powers of Ofwat, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, and the Environment Agency into a single, powerful regulator is a good start to turn around our failing water industry, but that is all it is: a start. Sir Jon made 87 other recommendations in his report!

Shortly before the report’s publication, the Environment Secretary also pledged to eliminate unauthorised sewage spills within 10 years, with the medium-term goal of halving sewage pollution by 2030.  

This marked the first time ministers have set a clear target to reduce sewage pollution, which, for me, epitomises the Conservatives’ negligent attitude towards the issue during their time in office. How could they not have a target when, under their watch, the issue spiralled into the crisis we face today?  

What the Secretary’s pledge lacked is any specific detail on how they will cut sewage spills and I believe we need to see far more commitment from the companies themselves to clean up their act. I am disappointed that the Government still refuses to consider a restructure of the industry so that it is no longer driven by profit, but by environmental obligations.

The Environment Secretary confirmed that the Government will give its full response to Sir Jon’s report this autumn and that a new Water Reform Bill will be coming soon. I look forward to scrutinising both publications in the future.  

Labour must ensure the new regulator really does have the powers it needs to hold these companies to account for the damage they are doing. That means allowing for serious and higher fines to be levied, with persistent sewage dumpers held criminally responsible. The public will not stand for anything less.