Are You Drinking What We're Drinking?

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

Conference notes that:

1. Sewage dumping remains a major problem affecting Britain's lakes, rivers and coastal areas.
2. Between 2020-2022, sewage has been dumped by England's water companies over a million times lasting over 7.5 million hours.
3. Water company executives in England, Wales and Scotland have paid themselves £76 million between 2020-2022 including £42 million in bonuses, benefits and incentives.
4. The problem is not limited to England, with sewage dumping also a problem in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
5. Water companies lose millions of litres of water every day through leaks.

Conference believes that:

1. The Government and regulators have failed to hold the water companies to account for their failures, while also failing to encourage the right investment from water companies.
2. Local authorities need far more powers to hold water companies accountable and need to work closely with them to prevent discharges and leaks.
3. Citizens should be able to hold water companies accountable directly.
4. No-one should be in water poverty.
5. The UK has significantly fewer designated bathing sites than other countries in Europe.

Conference reaffirms calls for:

1. Meaningful targets and deadlines to be set for water companies to end sewage discharges.
2. The introduction of a Sewage Tax on water companies profits to fund the cleanup of waterways.
3. The abolition of Ofwat and its replacement with a new 'Coastal, Rivers and Lakes Authority', taking on relevant powers from the Environment Agency and working with Natural Resources Wales.
4. The addition of local environmental groups onto water companies' boards.
5. The transformation of water companies into public benefit companies, so that particular economic and environmental policy objectives must be considered explicitly in the running of the companies.

Conference therefore supports the following policies on the water industry, taken from the spokesperson's paper Are You Drinking What We're Drinking?:

1. Strengthening the powers of the new 'Coastal, Rivers and Lakes Authority' by:
   1. Ending self-monitoring by water companies of rivers, lakes and coastlines and increasing monitoring by the regulator.
   2. Issuing fines to the top executives of water companies and initiating prosecutions.
   3. Ensuring that water companies can make the right investments with a 25-year investment plan, including innovative options, such as nature based solutions.
   4. Closely regulating the ownership of water companies.
   5. Revoking water company licences in extreme circumstances.
2. Increasing the powers of local authorities to hold water companies accountable by:
   1. Creating new water boards.
   2. Establishing my catchment partnerships between the water companies and local authorities.
   3. New planning powers to require sustainable drainage systems are installed and existing properties don't make the sewage crisis worse.
3. Ensuring citizens and the environment are protected by:
   1. Increasing monitoring by ensuring that new storm overflow monitors measure volume and percentage of sewage, particularly in sensitive areas such as SSSIs and designating bathing waters.
   2. Extending the Freedom of Information Act to cover water companies.
   3. Establishing a new 'Sewage Illness Victim Compensation Scheme'.
   4. Permitting citizens as well as charities and other groups to take water companies to court.
   5. Forcing the water company to fund local environmental reporters.
4. Adding consumer representatives to water company boards and make water bills show exactly where money is spent.
5. Trialling the creation of new not-for-profit mutual debt free companies to take over water company assets, particularly in sensitive areas, allowing them to raise the required capital to make investments.
6. Creating a new water social tariff, aiming to eliminate water poverty by the end of the next parliament.
7. Ensuring that energy retrofitting programmes also includes measures to improve water resilience and cut bills.
8. Aiming to increase the number of designated bathing water sites to 1,500 by 2030.
9. Setting legally binding targets to prevent sewage dumping into bathing waters and highly sensitive nature sites by 2030.

Applicability: England; except C. (lines 31-33) and 1. (lines 43-53), which are England and Wales.

Motion prior to amendment

Conference notes that:

1. Sewage dumping remains a major problem affecting Britain's lakes, rivers and coastal areas.
2. In the last three years, sewage has been dumped by England's water companies over a million times lasting over 7.5 million hours.
3. Water company executives in England, Wales and Scotland have paid themselves "76 million over the last three years including "42 million in bonuses, benefits and incentives.
4. The problem is not limited to England, with sewage dumping also a problem in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
5. Water companies lose millions of litres of water every day through leaks.

Conference believes that:

1. The Government and regulators have failed to hold the water companies to account for their failures, while also failing to encourage the right investment from water companies.
2. Local authorities need far more powers to hold water companies accountable and need to work closely with them to prevent discharges and leaks.
3. Citizens should be able to hold water companies accountable directly.
4. No-one should be in water poverty.
5. The UK has significantly fewer designated bathing sites than other countries in Europe.

Conference reaffirms calls for:

1. Meaningful targets and deadlines to be set for water companies to end sewage discharges.
2. The introduction of a Sewage Tax on water companies profits to fund the cleanup of waterways.
3. The abolition of Ofwat and its replacement with a new 'Coastal, Rivers and Lakes Authority', taking on relevant powers from the Environment Agency and working with Natural Resources Wales.
4. The addition of local environmental groups onto water companies' boards.
5. The transformation of water companies into public benefit companies, so that particular economic and environmental policy objectives must be considered explicitly in the running of the companies.

Conference therefore supports the following policies on the water industry, taken from the spokesperson's paper Are You Drinking What We're Drinking?:

1. Strengthening the powers of the new 'Coastal, Rivers and Lakes Authority' by:
   1. Ending self-monitoring by water companies of rivers, lakes and coastlines and increasing monitoring by the regulator.
   2. Issuing fines to the top executives of water companies and initiating prosecutions.
   3. Ensuring that water companies can make the right investments with a 25-year investment plan, including innovative options, such as nature based solutions.
   4. Closely regulating the ownership of water companies.
   5. Revoking water company licences in extreme circumstances.
2. Increasing the powers of local authorities to hold water companies accountable by:
   1. Creating new water boards.
   2. Establishing my catchment partnerships between the water companies and local authorities.
   3. New planning powers to require sustainable drainage systems are installed and existing properties don't make the sewage crisis worse.
3. Ensuring citizens and the environment are protected by:
   1. Increasing monitoring by ensuring that new storm overflow monitors measure volume and percentage of sewage, particularly in sensitive areas such as SSSIs and designating bathing waters.
   2. Extending the Freedom of Information Act to cover water companies.
   3. Establishing a new 'Sewage Illness Victim Compensation Scheme'.
   4. Permitting citizens as well as charities and other groups to take water companies to court.
   5. Forcing the water company to fund local environmental reporters.
4. Adding consumer representatives to water company boards and make water bills show exactly where money is spent.
5. Trialling the creation of new not-for-profit mutual debt free companies to take over water company assets, particularly in sensitive areas, allowing them to raise the required capital to make investments.
6. Creating a new water social tariff, aiming to eliminate water poverty by the end of the next parliament.
7. Ensuring that energy retrofitting programmes also includes measures to improve water resilience and cut bills.
8. Aiming to increase the number of designated bathing water sites to 1,500 by 2030.
9. Setting legally binding targets to prevent sewage dumping into bathing waters and highly sensitive nature sites by 2030.

Applicability: England; except C. (lines 31-33) and 1. (lines 43-53), which are England and Wales.

Mover: 7 minutes; summation 4 minutes; all other speakers: 3 minutes. For eligibility and procedure for speaking in this debate, see pages 44-45 of the agenda.

The deadline for amendments to this motion is 13.00 Monday 4 March; see page 47. Those selected for debate will be printed in Conference Extra and Saturday's Conference Daily. The deadline for requests for separate votes is 09.00 Thursday 14 March; see page 44.

Amendments

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

In ii) (line 4), delete 'In the last three years' and insert 'Between 2020-2022'.

In iii) (line 8), delete 'over the last three years' and insert 'between 2020-2022,'.