Water firm river pollution fines must be spent on rivers, MPs to say

Fines from water companies that pollute rivers must be ringfenced by law to be spent on restoring water quality in rivers, MPs will urge.

The Treasury is trying to take control of £11m in fines from water companies, which was intended for small charities to restore rivers, in a move criticised by river restoration campaigners as “appalling”.

In an attempt to protect the water restoration fund, and ensure future fines collected from water companies are used to restore the river environment, the Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron is seeking an amendment on Tuesday to the water special measures bill in parliament.

Mark Lloyd, the chief executive of the Rivers Trust, which supports the amendment, along with other environmental charities, said: “Rumours that the water restoration fund will be abandoned and the money swallowed up by the Treasury have troubled us deeply.

“This course of action would seriously – perhaps irreversibly – damage the chances of achieving our vision of wild, healthy, natural rivers, and would not be in accordance with one of the government’s key manifesto pledges and Defra’s top priority mission.”

Farron’s amendment is one of a number being debated on Tuesday. The Labour MP Clive Lewis is backing an amendment proposed by Farron to stop bill payers being forced to bail out failing water companies if they are taken into special administration.

The amendment comes as the government moves towards putting struggling Thames Water into special administration, as the biggest of the privatised water companies tries to face down bankruptcy.

As it stands, Labour’s water special measures bill would leave customers at risk of paying the cost of Thames’s debts to creditors in the form of higher bills if it goes into special administration. Thames Water, which provides water and sewerage services to 16 million customers in London and south-east England, has been on the brink of collapse for months as it struggles under a £15bn debt pile. Farron’s amendment would allow up to 100% of debts to be cancelled in the event of special administration proceedings, protecting customers from any attempt to get them to pay off creditors via bill rises.

A petition signed by 34,000 people calling for Thames Water to move into public ownership has been handed to the environment secretary, Steve Reed, before a crucial high court hearing on the company’s future next week.

Matthew Topham, a lead campaigner at We Own It, who organised the petition, said: “Thames Water is a masterclass in how not to run an essential public service. Steve Reed has the power to step in and end this chaos, stabilising not only the future of our water resources but also the wider UK investment landscape.

“If he fails, we face a consumer bailout at eye-watering interest rates that could set a dangerous precedent.”