New statistics released by the Environment Agency on bathing water quality reveal England's beaches are the cleanest they have ever been since records began thanks to massive improvements made over the past two decades.
Bathing water quality, tested at 413 beaches and lakes up and down the country, is the best on record and 98.5 per cent passed tough standards this year.
Just 28 per cent of bathing waters met the top water quality standards in the early 1990s; now 93.2 per cent are rated excellent and good.
The number of bathing waters rated ‘excellent’ has increased by 5.9 percentage points since 2015, and five bathing waters have met at least the minimum standards for the first time.
Sir James Bevan, Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, said:
“Water quality at beaches has improved again this year, 98.5 per cent passed the standards and 69.5 per cent met the highest rating of Excellent.”
“The Environment Agency has led successful work to protect people, tourism and the environment. We will continue to ensure bathing waters are maintained and improved further, so we need partners and the public to work with us to reduce pollution.”
The organisation which represents all the UK water companies, Water UK, said the water companies are acutely aware of how important clean bathing water is to customers, local businesses and the tourist trade, and the water industry has invested billions of pounds since the 1990s on measures to protect bathing waters.
Sarah Mukherjee, Director of Environment at Water UK, added:
"Despite these positive results, water companies continue to invest heavily into the environment, and are looking to the future. The sector is working with a wide variety of groups to develop a programme of robust research to help deliver a sewerage and drainage system that's affordable, resilient to climate change and that will serve the UK for generations to come."
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