Sewage spills top 300,000: Therese Coffey must resign

EMBARGO: For Immediate Release

The Liberal Democrats have called on Thérèse Coffey to resign for failing to tackle sewage dumping by water companies, after new figures revealed there were over 300,000 sewage spills in 2022.

Coffey has refused to take tough action on water companies, allowing them to pay multi-million pound bonuses and discharge sewage into rivers for decades to come.

The Environment Agency data shows water companies dumped sewage into Britain’s waterways 301,091 times in 2022, equivalent to 824 every day. This is down slightly from the previous year, but the agency said this was largely due to the dry weather, not action by water companies.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

"These figures are a damning verdict on the Government's failure to protect our treasured rivers and lakes. This is a national scandal and it is happening on the Conservatives’ watch. A historic drought is no excuse for this Government’s inaction and failure.

"The Environment Secretary has let water companies get away with these environmental crimes for far too long.

"It is clear she simply doesn't care enough to get tough on these polluting firms. Thérèse Coffey must now resign or be sacked so we can have an Environment Secretary who actually cares about saving our rivers from destruction. If the Prime Minister fails to take action now, we will hold him personally to account for killing our rivers and wildlife.

"Thérèse Coffey has had almost six months in the job and yet she still continues to let water companies dump outrageous amounts of sewage into our rivers - all whilst rewarding themselves with multi-million pound bonuses. Her plans to solve this crisis would allow sewage dumping to happen for decades to come, poisoning more animals and destroying precious chalk streams. Enough is enough: this sewage scandal must end today."

ENDS

Notes to Editor

The latest Environment Agency data can be found here.