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The government has “no time to waste” in punishing “disgraced” water companies, the Liberal Democrats have said after obtaining new data on firms breaching permits for sewage spills.
The nine water companies in England breached their environmental permits 695 times last year, often due to pumping raw sewage into waterways without permission, a Freedom of Information (FoI) request revealed.
The figure is well above the previous two years, but not as high as the 841 in 2020.
It comes amid public fury over the polluted state of the country’s waterways, and as Greenpeace revealed the former Tory water minister in March tried to obscure headline figures about the extent of sewage spills.
The Liberal Democrats, whose support is strongest in rural constituencies, has campaigned hard on sewage and dirty water.
On Friday, it repeated its calls for an industry crackdown.
Its environment spokesperson Tim Farron said: “These polluting firms are breaching their permits on an almost daily basis, all whilst pocketing massive bonuses and profits. Frankly, the whole thing stinks.
“The new government has no time to waste in punishing these disgraced firms.”
This should start with an immediate ban on all executive bonuses, but go on to tackle “complete reform of the industry”, he said.
His fellow party MP Layla Moran told Sky News reforms should include turning the companies into “public benefit companies”.
“I think most people would agree that’s a good thing, but also it would not be the taxpayer that is bailing them out,” she said. “That’s really critical.”
According to the FoI to the Environment Agency, a third of…
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