Stephen Morgan MP has raised concerns with the Environment Agency about Southern Water’s environmental performance and demanded answers on the £90m fine it was handed last year.
It comes as a string of pollution warnings were issued last week for dozens of beaches in England and Wales, after untreated sewage was discharged into the sea around the coast.
Hugo Tagholm, CEO of charity Surfers Against Sewage, which runs the service that issued the warnings, said last week “Our rivers and beaches are once again being treated as open sewers. Years of underinvestment is now in plain sight.”
In a letter to the Environment Agency, the Portsmouth MP underlined that these scenes followed a pattern of previous environmental failings by sewage and water companies.
Last month, the Environment Agency’s 2021 report of water sewage companies’ environmental performance awarded Southern Water a one-star rating – the lowest level possible – and ranked it as the worst performing company for sewage pollution incidents per 10,000km of sewer, at 94.
The Chair of the Environment Agency, Emma Howard Boyd, said in reaction to the results, “For years people have seen executives and investors handsomely rewarded while the environment pays the price”.
The Environment Agency has also now called for larger fines, prison sentences for Chief Executives and Board members whose companies are responsible for the most serious incidents, and company directors struck off so they cannot move on in their careers after illegal environmental damage.
Mr Morgan supported the environment watchdog’s stance and calls for tougher action, but has now challenged the regulator in his letter to provide greater transparency on the record £90m fine Southern Water was handed last year for 6,971 unpermitted sewage discharges between 2010 and 2015.
The City MP has asked how much of the fine has been paid already, what the funds received will be used for and a timeline for when it is expected to be fully paid off.
The Portsmouth representative had previously questioned Ministers and commissioned research from the House of Commons library on the issue, but his office is yet to receive a ‘satisfactory’ answer.
The Member of Parliament for Portsmouth South, Stephen Morgan, said:
“Our country is facing a dirty water emergency and the Government and water companies have failed to face up to the problem.
“That’s why I have written to the Environment Agency to share concerns constituents have raised with me, and demanded answers they deserve on how Southern Water is repaying its debts for the damage it has caused to our precious local environment.
“Labour will put a stop to this disgraceful practice by ensuring there can be enforcement of unlimited fines, holding water company bosses legally and financially accountable for their negligence, and by toughening up regulations that currently allow the system to be abused.”
The Portsmouth MP has taken a range of actions to tackle the impacts of the dirty water crisis locally, including questioning Ministers, convening a public meeting on the issue and working alongside local organisations and charities to hold government and industry to account.
