Maria Caulfield, Member of Parliament for Lewes, has written to Southern Water to demand accelerated action to tackle sewage pollution in the Lewes Constituency.
This comes as Southern Water have confirmed £1.5 billion investment over the next 10 years to tackle storm overflows.
However, Maria has written to the CEO of Southern Water to push for more investment to be delivered faster, to ensure that pollution is reduced and all storm overflows comply with their spill targets as soon as possible.
Commenting Maria Caulfield MP said:
“I welcome that Southern Water are investing to cut overflows, but I have been clear that they must go further and faster to tackle the completely unacceptable pollution in the local area. That is why I have written to the CEO to express my concerns around the speed of investment being delivered and to request tougher action.”
This intervention comes after the Government has recently announced a tough new inspections and enforcement regime. We have already increased our oversight of water companies and the EA have carried out over 930 inspections to date in this financial year.
But the Government is going further and the number of inspections, including unannounced inspections where officers have powers to gain forcible entry where needed and appropriate, will rise to 4,000 by the end of March 2025 – a fourfold increase. From April 2026, the number of inspections will rise further to 10,000 per year.
This is in addition to a ban on bonuses for executives of water companies found to have committed a serious breach of the criminal law.