Steve Reed tried to make a splash this morning by promising to halve unauthorised sewage leaks in waterways within five years – or offering to resign.
“I’m making an absolute commitment and I’m committed to delivering it,” he said, arguing his job as environment secretary “should” be on the line.
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He claimed this is halfway towards Labour’s goal to eliminate them altogether within a decade and announced £104 billion of private investment to help tackle the problem.
The government say this is the first time ministers have set a clear target to reduce sewage pollution, which has skyrocketed in recent years despite public outrage.
Labour also wants to cut phosphorus, which causes harmful algae blooms, in half by 2028.
So Reed stuck by his pledge to leave the role if he doesn’t meet this self-imposed targets.
“Politicians come here and say we are going to do things. Of course our jobs should be on the line if we don’t,” Reed told the BBC.
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That sounded like a major commitment from a senior minister offering to finally fix the problem polluting our waterways.
But, as BBC presenter Laura Kuenssberg pointed out, ministers have been promising to address the problem for years – and Reed’s promise to halve the leaks also only takes the number down to the levels seen in 2019.
The Guardian found water companies in England had discharged raw sewage into rivers on more than 200,000 occasions that year.
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There have also been six different environment secretaries in the last six years (which rather diminishes Reed’s offer to step down, considering the turnover).
While five of those ministers were Conservative MPs, Labour have been in power for a year now – and the Environment Agency found serious water pollution incidents rose by 60% last year in England.
Successive ministers keep promising to reduce waste in our waterways, but those vows are clearly yet to have any kind of impact as sewage spills just keep rising.
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So it’s no wonder Lib Dem leader Ed Davey called Labour’s latest vows to implement change “empty promises”.
He said: “We need to see far more ambition from this government with an end to all sewage dumping in bathing waters by 2030.”
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Reed’s pledge also came shortly before the publication of the Independent Water Commission, which will be released on Monday – and which may advise the government scrap water regulator Ofwat altogether.
But Davey warned: “This report must not be used as an excuse to kick the can down the road on immediate reforms.
“We need to see action now including replacing Ofwat with a tough new regulator to end this national scandal.
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“For years water companies have paid out millions in dividends and bonuses. It would be deeply unfair if customers are now made to pick up the tab for this scandal through higher bills.”
Meanwhile, the Tory shadow secretary for levelling up, Kevin Hollinrake, welcomed Reed’s plans, but compared them to “shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic”.
“It’s really important the regulation is effective,” he said. “We put in a lot of measures to give Ofwat more powers to regulate the water industry. And the lot of those things were very effective, nevertheless, there’s a lot more to do.
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“I welcome what’s been announced today, ‘halve the number of sewage outflows by 2030.’
“All those things are possible because the measures we put in place. But clearly more needs to be done.”
Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage had a more radical suggestion, saying Labour should let the water companies “go bust” so the shareholders “lose all their money”.
He told Sky News: “We need fresh investment in, complete re-capitalisation of it and we’re going to have to accept that bills are going to go up. I don’t see any other way around it.”
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Either way, it’s clear patience is running out for Labour to take action – and our rivers are only getting more polluted by the day…
