MP Neil Hudson has signed up to a manifesto calling for ambitious plans to tackle water pollution.
Dr Hudson, who represents Penrith and the Border, signed the manifesto along with 40 other MPs and peers from the Conservative Environment Network’s Parliamentary Caucus.
It outlines ways the Government can clean up the UK’s rivers, seas, and waterways, including a new fund that could support initiatives in Cumbria to tackle pollution using money raised by fining polluting water firms.
The manifesto calls for all money raised from fines handed out by the Environment Agency to be allocated to a new government fund or given to a third party like the National Lottery Heritage Fund which groups, organisations and farmers in Penrith and The Border could apply for to keep lakes, rivers and tarns clean.
The group said if the Government had spent the money raised by water company fines since 2017, over £140 million could have been invested in local initiatives. Now that the Government has committed to lift the cap on civil fines – the most common penalty – the Environment Agency will likely raise more revenue from fines, unlocking millions more for restoring waterways.
Dr Hudson said this year he repeatedly stood up in Parliament; probed water bosses, regulators and ministers in his EFRA Committee role; and spoken to Defra and Government officials about the unacceptable and immoral sewage discharge rates.
He added: “Representing a vast constituency that has some of the most beautiful and precious waters in the UK, I know more than most just how important water is to people’s lives. And likewise, just how detrimental pollution can be to people enjoying these community assets.
“There are no quick fixes to overhaul our ageing Victorian sewage infrastructure and I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few years trying to get action on this issue. The tide is turning on water pollution though and it’s been refreshing to work with the Conservative Environment Network on this urgently needed manifesto.”
“I’ve previously welcomed the Government’s landmark reforms to increase fines dramatically and provide a £56 billion capital investment programme over the next 25 years to make sewage discharges a thing of the past. However, we need to reinvest the money from fines in local initiatives to restore our waterways to make sure we leave our precious landscapes in a better state than we found them.”
The manifesto also calls for the Government to:
- Introduce a clear labelling system to stop people from flushing items like wet wipes, sanitary products and nappies that contribute to 300,000 sewer blockages a year, polluting our rivers and seas and costing bill payers £100 million annually to clear.
- Designate at least 22 new river bathing water sites across England every five years, replicating the success of the coastal system, which spurred efforts to clean up our seas. In 1990, only 28 per cent of coastal bathing water sites met that time’s high standard. Today, 93 per cent of the 400 sites are good or excellent.
- Roll out the Environmental Land Management scheme, which will pay farmers to restore waterways and tackle flooding, and deploy sustainable farming methods reducing runoff from agriculture responsible for 40 per cent of damage to waterways.
- Reform planning rules to build more reservoirs, fast-track on-farm reservoirs and slurry stores, set minimum water efficiency standards to tackle wasted water, make water firms statutory consultees on planning applications, and require new homes to have sustainable drainage.
- Reform nutrient neutrality requirements to unlock the 120,000 new homes currently blocked across 74 local authority areas by creating a private market for developers to fund river catchment restoration to enable existing polluters to adopt cleaner practices.
