New Environment Secretary Steve Barclay has written to water company Chief Executives calling on them to go “further and faster” to secure a measurable reduction in sewage spills in the next 12 months and asking them to respond with written plans by 19th December.

He described tackling storm overflow sewage discharges as a “key priority” for both the Prime Minister and himself – and “most importantly, the public.”

The Minister is asking the water companies to make rapid progress in two areas:

1. Accelerating maintenance work at sewer networks to tackle high spilling storm overflows

The letter points out that last year, around 20% of frequently spilling overflows in England discharged for operational reasons such as a lack of regular operational maintenance or dealing with blockages. “This is simply not good enough,” Barclay writes. He goes on to point out that ensuring that sewer networks operate effectively through regular maintenance is “a core legal requirement for all water companies, adding that “enhanced maintenance will reduce the number and volume of discharges.”

Barclay is calling on them to respond with a better maintenance programme, eliminating this as a cause of storm overflow sewage discharges in the next 12 months, “unless in exceptional circumstances.”

The programmes must include the specific operational maintenance improvements that the companies will undertake, so that no storm overflow is discharging due to a lack of operational maintenance by 1 December 2024.

2. Interim solutions at high spilling overflows

The Environment Minister would also like to understand where companies see further opportunities to fund and deliver more interim solutions, commenting:

“Any immediate opportunities to utilise technology and engineering advances in a cost-effective way to quickly mitigate the impacts on high priority and high public interest sites should be seized.“

"Profit must not come at the cost of pollution"

He concludes the letter by saying:

“I would like to remind you of the civic duty that you hold on water. Profit must not come at the cost of pollution, and the public rightly expect that this issue is addressed with maximum speed and ambition. Regulators will take enforcement action where companies breach their legal obligations relating to storm overflows.”

Once the CEOs have responded to his request, Barclay intends to discuss the plans at a roundtable in the coming weeks.

He told the CEOs:

“With the regulators, I will be closely following the development and implementation of these overdue plans.”

Steve Barclay was appointed Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 13 November 2023. He has also written separately to the Environment Agency to set out his expectations of the Agency in holding water companies to account in relation to their environmental performance.