Steve Reed MP: speeches

Speeches

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  We are increasing monitoring to 100% of all outlets. I note that representatives from the Conservative party will often try to take the credit for increasing monitoring. That is a good thing to have done, but what is not so good is to use it just to wave hello to the sewage as it floats on by and do nothing about reducing it.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady is right: transparency is always very important. I believe that data is available and am happy to write to direct her to it so she can share the information with her constituents.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. I speak regularly with my counterparts in Northern Ireland and am more than happy to convey his message to them the next time I speak to them.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  The state of the River Derwent is, alas, similar to many other rivers, lakes and seas up and down the country. That is why we are launching a water revolution today to completely reset the water sector from top to bottom so that the failings of the past can never happen again.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  Nationalising the water companies would, as I have already said, cost £100 billion—money that we would have to strip out of the national health service and education in order to hand to the people who own the water companies that have been polluting our waterways. It is not an idea that commends itself to me, I am afraid.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  Yes, we are looking at what recommendations we can bring forward early; others will be part of the consultation.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Member for making that important point. His constituents, just like people right across the country, were last year forced to pay the price of 14 years of Conservative failure, because the Conservatives allowed the companies to pay out millions in dividends and bonuses when that money should have been invested in upgrading infrastructure. I have ringfenced customers’ money so that it will now only be spent on the purposes for which it was intended; otherwise, it will be returned to customers.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  Monitoring will now be compulsory on every single outlet, not just some of them. That data will be published in near real time so that consumers know exactly what is going into the waterways in the area where they live or where they are on holiday.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for important question. We have already introduced the “polluter pays” principle, so where there are successful prosecutions and enforcement action against water companies, they pay the price for that enforcement. That funds the additional resources to allow further investigations—and, if necessary, prosecutions—to go ahead. What a contrast with the previous Government, who slashed those resources in half.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  The target for reduction uses as its baseline the 2024 figure, not the 2021 figure used by the previous Government, recognising the extent to which sewage pollution increased between ’21 and ’24. I want to recognise the scale of the problem and then work to solve it from that point. We have announced the most ambitious target for sewage pollution reduction of any Government ever, and that is not the end of our ambition; there will be further to go until we restore all our waterways, including the beautiful Chichester harbour, back to purity.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I share my hon. Friend’s concerns, as does the Water Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice (Emma Hardy). We would be happy to make sure he gets his meeting.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I agree with my hon. Friend; it is a shame that no Reform Members have turned up, although perhaps it is not surprising because they did not bother mentioning this issue in their manifesto either. We did hear at the weekend that their leader, the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage), wants to hand £50 billion of taxpayers’ money to the owners of water companies. If we add that to its existing £80 billion of unfunded commitments, it comes to £130 billion. By my reckoning, that is almost double the amount that Liz Truss bet and lost on the economy when she crashed it and sent mortgages, prices and rents skyrocketing. Reform wants to double down on the bad bet.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I agree with my hon. Friend. I understand that the Welsh Deputy First Minister has laid a statement before the Senedd today giving his comments on Sir Jon’s report.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes an important point: buck-passing should not be allowed to continue. We are moving to new regional structures that will bring together the regulators, customers, advocacy groups, businesses and local authorities—to a place where those kind of issues can be resolved.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend and share his sentiment that the payment is outrageous. It was possible as part of a scheme that was permitted under the regulatory regime allowed by the previous Government. We have changed the law; it will not happen again.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend, who is such a strong campaigner on the water sector, makes a very important point, which she puts very well. I consider that pay rise to be outrageous, as does she. It turns out that he is receiving that pay increase under a scheme that was permitted by the regulator under the regime that the Conservatives had in place, and the payment he is getting this year relates to the last year of the Conservative Government. We have changed the law so that no similar payment can be made in future.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his questions. I echo and endorse his comments about the volunteers and citizen scientists who carried out fantastic work to ensure that this issue remained where it needed to be, which was right at the top of the political agenda. I hope that they will join us in welcoming Sir Jon’s report. There will be a White Paper and a consultation alongside it. We will launch the White Paper in the autumn, giving detailed Government responses to the 450-page report. With 88 recommendations, there is a lot to go through, but the report includes proposals about ownership, which will be consulted on as well. Volunteers and citizen scientists will be able to engage for the first time through the proposed regional structures. We accept that proposal in principle, and the detail of it will be worked through during the consultation. For the first time, there will be engagement on the catchment of entire river systems, and citizens, local authorities and businesses will all have a voice in that, as will members of the farming community operating within those catchments. I believe that by reducing the number of spills we will also reduce the volume of spills. The hon. Gentleman will be able to monitor that, and he will be able to hold me to account, as will the House and the public, as we work towards the target that I have outlined for reducing sewage spills from water companies by 50% by 2030. He of course is lucky enough to represent one of the most beautiful parts of the country, including Windermere, and we are working with United Utilities to remove all sources of pollution from that beautiful, iconic lake, so that what became a story of decline can become a visible symbol of renewal with this Government.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  In my view—and Sir Jon Cunliffe also makes this point—it is very important that we align water infrastructure investment with spatial planning, so that we can tackle the kinds of problems that my hon. Friend has referred to. We intend to go ahead with that in England; I have already accepted that recommendation in principle, even ahead of any consultation. Of course, the situation will be different in Scotland, because it has a SNP Government who have not really taken these issues seriously.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  People will have the right to go to the ombudsman to take up complaints such as that one, or any other complaint. Previously, there was no statutory ombudsman that water customers could have recourse to when they faced problems. We will bring one in, and it will operate alongside the much-increased levels of compensation that we have already introduced through the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025, which my hon. Friend supported.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I am more than happy to make sure my hon. Friend gets a meeting with an appropriate Minister. I am sure she will be pleased to know that this Government have ringfenced customers’ money so that it can only be spent on the purposes it was intended for, including upgrading broken and leaking pipes, and will no longer be diverted to pay for bonuses and dividends, as used to happen under the previous Government.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. The recommendation that I have accepted will create new regional structures under which water infrastructure investment will align with spatial planning, so that we can guarantee that in the future. However, that legislation is not yet in place, so I have set up a water infrastructure board in the Department. It will ensure that water companies are putting in infrastructure where opportunities for housing development and other forms of economic growth can take place.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend rightly points to sewage getting worse and bills rising every year for 14 years under the previous Government. We are turning the tide on Tory sewage today, and over the next five years residents in Dartford and elsewhere will see reductions in sewage until we meet our target.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I agree with much of what the hon. Lady says. Her constituents are experiencing what constituents across the country are experiencing. It is not acceptable and it will not continue. We will publish the White Paper in the autumn, with a consultation alongside it, and we intend to move to legislation during the first half of this Parliament.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes a very important point. We are currently going through a dry spell and seeing hosepipe bans in many parts of the country, yet in the winter it rained very heavily. The reason we have hosepipe bans is that we do not have the reservoirs to catch the rain when it falls and then use it in drier periods, which is because we have not built a new reservoir for 30 years. That changes now: these plans include the intention to build nine new reservoirs. To speed up the planning process, I as the Secretary of State am taking control of consents for reservoirs, so that they can be approved much faster and go ahead to provide the country with the clean drinking water we need.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  As the right hon. Member correctly points out, Scotland has a nationalised water company—under the control of the SNP Government, of course—and water pollution is worse than in England as a result. I am more than happy to write to him to give him the facts so that he can come back and correct the record in due course.