Faulty sewage spill monitors spark accusations of ‘environmental cover up’ by water firms
Water firms have been accused of an “environmental cover up” as fresh figures revealed one in seven sewage monitors – meant to record spills – were faulty.
This rose to a third of devices for embattled Thames Water, which is facing the risk of emergency nationalisation as it wrestles with a deepening funding crisis.
The number of monitors not working properly has fuelled concerns the scale of the sewage scandal is far bigger than previously thought, further ramping up pressure on the utility firms and government.
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Why is sewage flooding streets?
It comes after separate figures showed dumping of raw sewage into England’s rivers and seas was the worst on record last year.
Discharges of untreated effluent by water companies doubled from 1.8 million hours in 2022 to 3.6 million in 2023, according to Environment Agency data.
The number of individual spills also soared by 54% – from 301,000 incidents in 2022 to 464,000 in 2023, which was blamed in part on the wet weather.
Campaigners argue the pumping of sewage into waterways is the symptom of chronic underinvestment by water companies.
In the face of public anger at widespread pollution, firms recently fast-tracked £180m of investment.
They also plan to invest £10bn by the end of this decade, which they say would lead to 150,000 fewer spills a year.
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Gove: Thames Water leadership a ‘disgrace’
But analysis by the Liberal Democrats found that 15% of all sewage monitors were faulty, prompting the party to demand a national environmental emergency to be declared.
The number and length of sewage dumps from storm overflows, which act as safety valves during heavy rain to stop sewage from backing up into people’s homes, is measured by event duration monitors (EDMs).
However, Lib Dem research has revealed water companies have installed monitors which do not work at least 90% of the time, or have not even installed devices at all.
Across England, there are 2,221 monitors not operating properly.
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The water company with the worst record on faulty sewage monitors was Thames Water, with 33% of its equipment not functioning as it should, according to the Lib Dem research.
The next highest were Southern Water and Yorkshire Water, which both recorded 18.5% of their monitors as faulty.
Some devices have been broken for two years.
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Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson Tim Farron said: “Water companies could be complicit in an environmental cover up. Why on earth would a firm install these monitors if they don’t even work?
“The scale of the sewage scandal could be even larger than originally feared and Conservative ministers are not interested in understanding the true extent of the damage our rivers and beaches are being put through.
“They have let water companies off the hook at every turn and are now letting them get away with not even monitoring the amount of filthy sewage that is being dumped.”
He added: “This scandal requires a national environmental emergency to be declared and for this Conservative government to start treating this issue with the focus that it needs.
“Their inaction has failed our environment and failed communities across the country.”
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A spokesperson for industry body Water UK said: “Water companies are committed to robust monitoring of storm overflows across England with all now monitored – the most comprehensive and extensive monitoring system in the world.
“Due in part to their operating outdoors and in all weather conditions, some monitors will occasionally be temporarily out of action while maintenance is under way.
“This has improved, and the regulator has taken tough new powers to ensure the highest standards.
“We are seeking regulatory approval to invest over £10bn over the next five years – three times the current rate – to increase the capacity of our sewers and remove more than 150,000 annual sewage spills by the end of the decade.”
The issue has become a political battleground, with Labour pledging to ban bonuses for water company bosses and the Greens wanting to renationalise the firms.
While Michael Gove, the former environment secretary-turned-housing secretary, said the leadership of Thames Water was a “disgrace” this week and insisted those responsible for failings must “carry the can”.
Rachel Reeves has told Sky News she is looking at both tax rises and spending cuts in the budget, in her first interview since being briefed on the scale of the fiscal black hole she faces.
“Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well,” the chancellor said when asked how she would deal with the country’s economic challenges in her 26 November statement.
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Ms Reeves was shown the first draft of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) report, revealing the size of the black hole she must fill next month, on Friday 3 October.
She has never previously publicly confirmed tax rises are on the cards in the budget, going out of her way to avoid mentioning tax in interviews two weeks ago.
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Chancellor pledges not to raise VAT
Cabinet ministers had previously indicated they did not expect future spending cuts would be used to ensure the chancellor met her fiscal rules.
Ms Reeves also responded to questions about whether the economy was in a “doom loop” of annual tax rises to fill annual black holes. She appeared to concede she is trapped in such a loop.
Asked if she could promise she won’t allow the economy to get stuck in a doom loop cycle, Ms Reeves replied: “Nobody wants that cycle to end more than I do.”
She said that is why she is trying to grow the economy, and only when pushed a third time did she suggest she “would not use those (doom loop) words” because the UK had the strongest growing economy in the G7 in the first half of this year.
What’s facing Reeves?
Ms Reeves is expected to have to find up to £30bn at the budget to balance the books, after a U-turn on winter fuel and welfare reforms and a big productivity downgrade by the OBR, which means Britain is expected to earn less in future than previously predicted.
Yesterday, the IMF upgraded UK growth projections by 0.1 percentage points to 1.3% of GDP this year – but also trimmed its forecast by 0.1% next year, also putting it at 1.3%.
The UK growth prospects are 0.4 percentage points worse off than the IMF’s projects last autumn. The 1.3% GDP growth would be the second-fastest in the G7, behind the US.
Last night, the chancellor arrived in Washington for the annual IMF and World Bank conference.
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The big issues facing the UK economy
‘I won’t duck challenges’
In her Sky News interview, Ms Reeves said multiple challenges meant there was a fresh need to balance the books.
“I was really clear during the general election campaign – and we discussed this many times – that I would always make sure the numbers add up,” she said.
“Challenges are being thrown our way – whether that is the geopolitical uncertainties, the conflicts around the world, the increased tariffs and barriers to trade. And now this (OBR) review is looking at how productive our economy has been in the past and then projecting that forward.”
She was clear that relaxing the fiscal rules (the main one being that from 2029-30, the government’s day-to-day spending needs to rely on taxation alone, not borrowing) was not an option, making tax rises all but inevitable.
“I won’t duck those challenges,” she said.
“Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well, but the numbers will always add up with me as chancellor because we saw just three years ago what happens when a government, where the Conservatives, lost control of the public finances: inflation and interest rates went through the roof.”
Pic: PA
Blame it on the B word?
Ms Reeves also lay responsibility for the scale of the black hole she’s facing at Brexit, along with austerity and the mini-budget.
This could risk a confrontation with the party’s own voters – one in five (19%) Leave voters backed Labour at the last election, playing a big role in assuring the party’s landslide victory.
The chancellor said: “Austerity, Brexit, and the ongoing impact of Liz Truss’s mini-budget, all of those things have weighed heavily on the UK economy.
“Already, people thought that the UK economy would be 4% smaller because of Brexit.
“Now, of course, we are undoing some of that damage by the deal that we did with the EU earlier this year on food and farming, goods moving between us and the continent, on energy and electricity trading, on an ambitious youth mobility scheme, but there is no doubting that the impact of Brexit is severe and long-lasting.”
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