Many of you have contacted me following inaccurate recent media coverage about storm overflows, so I thought I would take this opportunity to set the record straight.

There have been several spurious claims by opposition politicians that my colleagues and I voted to allow sewage to flow into the sea and our rivers - this is simply untrue.

Last year, the Government passed the Environment Act to improve water and air quality, tackle waste, increase recycling, halt species decline, and better our natural environment.

Banning the emergency use of storm overflows would undoubtedly cause raw sewage to flow into homes, roads, schools and businesses through our existing Victorian drainage network.

This would present a serious threat to our children’s health and education, and our recovery from the pandemic.

Furthermore, ordinary homeowners would find it exceedingly difficult - or eye-wateringly expensive - to obtain insurance.

The Environment Minister estimated the cost of banning storm overflows at between £150bn and £660bn - more than public spending during the pandemic.

Instead of an unworkable and dangerous ban, water companies now face severe legal limitations on the use of storm overflows, and must completely eliminate the harm sewage causes to the environment, meaning that:

  • by 2035, the impacts of 75 per cent of storm overflows affecting important protected environmental sites will have been eliminated;
  • by 2035, there will be 70 per cent fewer discharges into bathing waters,
  • and by 2050, approximately 320,000 discharges will have been eliminated.

Ministers have increased the scope of overflow monitoring, and are on track to reach 100 per cent coverage by 2023.

Indeed, it is a requirement of this new law for companies to provide almost real-time discharge data to the Environment Agency and the public.

This approach enabled the Environment Agency and Ofwat to launch major criminal and civil investigations into water company sewage discharges - at more than 2,200 treatment works - and also to bring 54 prosecutions against water companies, securing fines of nearly £140m since 2015.

In addition, water companies are now expected to cut the frequency and volume of storm overflows, and cannot profit from environmental damage.

Ofwat has demanded transparency in water company executive pay and dividends to ensure they align with proper delivery of the ever-stricter environmental standards now expected both by the Government and the law.

The Conservative Government has delivered a real, considered and thoughtful plan to overhaul our sewage system in order to tackle storm overflows.

I hope this brief explanation of a highly complex topic has in some way clarified this for you.

As MP for a predominantly rural constituency like Eddisbury, I am extremely proud to support the Environment Act and the measures it sets out, as we work to deliver the most ambitious environmental improvements of any country on earth.