The Clean Water Authority

Submitted by: 10 party members
Mover: Tim Farron MP (Spokesperson for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs)
Summation:  Josh Babarinde MP

Conference notes with concern that:

1. Regulators and the former Conservative Government have not held water companies to account for their failures to maintain and improve water quality and create sustainable funding structures, whilst also stifling innovation within the industry.
2. Water companies want to increase customer bills by an average of 33% by 2030 to fund improvements to infrastructure, when they have paid out millions in bonuses to executives and failed to make sound investments.
3. The Conservatives in government repeatedly voted against providing Ofwat with more powers to hold water companies to account and end the sewage scandal.
4. Labour have pledged to increase Ofwat's powers but keep the existing regulator in place.
5. Water company bosses in England and Wales received £54 million in benefits, bonuses and incentives since the 2019 election - in which period, sewage was dumped 1.5 million times, lasting over 11 million hours.
6. Millions of litres of water are lost every day through leaks and two of Britain's biggest water companies do not have complete maps of their sewer pipe network.
7. The quality and frequency of water monitoring is inadequate; there is no requirement on water companies to record the volume of sewage spills and water companies are self-monitoring pollution incidents.

Conference believes that:

1. As a point of principle, customers should not bear the brunt of costs for infrastructure improvements on account of the failings of water companies.
2. Water companies should be more transparent about how bill payers' money is spent to restore customers' trust that water companies will invest in the system to reduce leakage, sewerage flooding and pollution.
3. Nobody should be in water poverty.
4. Effective regulation and investment to maintain and upgrade water infrastructure are key to restoring the natural environment and mitigating the risks of climate change, including flooding and water shortages. Ofwat has failed to be an effective regulator.
5. Local authorities need more powers and resources to monitor the health of our waterways, hold water companies to account and work with them in catchment partnerships to prevent discharges and upgrade infrastructure.
6. Citizens should be able to hold water companies accountable directly.

Conference reaffirms calls for:

1. Meaningful targets and deadlines to be set for water companies to end sewage discharges.
2. Water companies to publish 25-year investment plans to encourage sound investment and promote the use of nature-based solutions.
3. The implementation of a ban on water bonuses until sewage spills end and leaks are fixed.
4. The transformation of water companies into public benefit companies.
5. A new Blue Flag status for rivers, streams and lakes.
6. A single social tariff for water bills to help eliminate water poverty within the next Parliament.

Conference resolves to:

1. Replace Ofwat with a new regulator, the Clean Water Authority, taking on the relevant powers from the Environment Agency and working with Natural Resources Wales.
2. Provide more funding to regulators including the Clean Water Authority, the Environment Agency, the Office for Environmental Protection and Natural England to improve regulation and the enforcement of environmental laws.
3. Strengthen regulatory powers and resources for the new Clean Water Authority to:
   1. Mandate that water companies publish publicly accessible live time data on the recorded volume, duration and number of sewage spills.
   2. Set legally binding targets to prevent sewage discharges into bathing waters and highly sensitive nature sites by 2030.
   3. Revoke the licence of poorly performing water companies swiftly.
   4. Fine top executives of water companies and initiate prosecutions.
   5. Increase water monitoring with new Sewage Inspectors, including unannounced inspections, with the aim of ending water companies' self-monitoring.
   6. Better regulate the ownership of water companies.
   7. Reform water companies to put local environmental experts on water company boards.
   8. Lead the transformation of water companies into public benefit companies.

Applicability: England and Wales.

Amendments

The FCC has agreed to make the following drafting amendments to the motion:

In 2. (line 65), delete ‘and’ and insert ‘,’; and after ‘Natural England’ insert ‘and Local Authorities’.

In vi) (line 58), delete ‘next’ and insert ‘this’.

Amendment One

Submitted by: Manchester
Mover:John Bridges.
Summation: Alan Good.

After F. (line 45), insert:

G. Measures to tackle the pollution of our water courses and waterways should include those to manage industrial effluents from point sources, surface water littering, and non-point sources of pollution including industrial chemicals, pesticides, fertilisers, animal manure and soil washed into streams in rainfall run-off.

After 3. g) (line 85), insert:

4. To clarify and publicise who has the responsibility for the maintenance of inland waterways including surrounding spaces such as towpaths and riverbanks.

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Mover: 7 minutes; summation of motion and movers and summation of any amendments: 4 minutes; all other speakers: 3 minutes. For eligibility and procedure for speaking in this debate, see page 8 of the agenda. 

The deadline for amendments to this motion, see pages 10–11, and for requests for separate votes, see pages 7–8 of the agenda, is 09.00 Thursday 12 September. Those selected for debate will be printed in Conference Extra and Saturday’s Conference Daily.