Steve Reed MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I cannot take credit for the picture—that was Sir Jon—but I can join my hon. Friend in crediting the campaign groups who have done such a fantastic job at keeping this issue at the top of the political agenda. Sir Jon makes proposals in his report about those labyrinthine structures that she is talking about. We need clarity and transparency, and that is what we will now work towards.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  We have to take a rational, not ideological, approach to tackling this problem. Nationalising the water companies would cost £100 billion. Those are not figures, as I have seen my hon. Friend claim, from the water companies; they are provided by officials in my Department under the influence of nobody externally. To pay that money—£100 billion—we would have to take it away from public services, such as the national health service and education, to hand it to the owners of the companies that have been polluting our waterways. That makes no sense to me and it makes no sense to the public. Frankly, I am surprised that it makes any sense to him.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman—I think—for his comments, but it is disappointing that the shadow Secretary of State did not consider a matter of this urgency to be important enough for her to show up in the Chamber this afternoon. I am afraid that that really does reflect the importance that their party ascribed to this issue during the 14 years in which it was in power. I enjoy listening to the hon. Gentleman, but I am afraid that he sounded a little delusional this afternoon. If he really thinks that the Conservatives did so well on sewage, I wonder why he thinks sewage pollution in our waterways increased every single year during their 14 years in charge. The fact is that the Conservatives made the situation far worse, because they instructed the regulator to apply a light touch when they should have told it to get a grip. They stripped out resources from the regulator, reducing its resources by 50% at one point, so it was less able to enforce against sewage pollution. They allowed millions of pounds, if not billions, to be diverted away from investment and to be used instead for unjustified bonuses and dividends for water companies. It is this Government who have secured £104 billion of investment to upgrade our water system. It is this Government who have banned the unfair bonuses that water bosses were taking. It is this Government who are introducing monitoring of all sewage outlets. And it is this Government who are going to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas, where the previous Government failed abysmally.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  The new ombudsman will have statutory powers to provide independent and free support to customers experiencing the kinds of failures that my hon. Friend describes; there are many others, of course. Previously, water was one of the only utilities that did not have that resource available, but it will do from now on. We have also taken steps and introduced measures to increase compensation for people who have experienced failure by their water company, with compensation at least doubling and in some cases increasing tenfold.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I am afraid that the Green party’s proposals would mean paying £100 billion of taxpayers’ money to the owners of the water companies. That money would have to be taken away from the national health service. It would take years to unpick the current ownership models, during which time pollution in our rivers would get much worse, not better. We know it does not work, and we have only to look north of the border to see it; under the nationalised model in Scotland, pollution is worse, not better. The hon. Member is talking about cutting the national health service, giving £100 billion to the owners of the current water companies and making pollution far worse. That does not sound very green to me.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  Not only should we never abandon bill payers, but we never will abandon them. We are revolutionising the entire water sector so that customers’ interests are right at the heart of it in a way they have never been before.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I pay tribute to the young people of my hon. Friend’s constituency. Young people famously care about the environment, and they are devastated to see the scale of pollution in our waterways that she described. We have taken all these steps and put in place the building blocks for change within a year of winning the general election. The previous Government had 14 years. They could have done exactly the same thing in any one of those 14 years, but, as is shown by the absence of the shadow Secretary of State, they just did not care enough.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  This Government are going to do what works, rather than what is ideologically correct. We are not going to strip £100 billion out of public services like the national health service to give it to the owners of the water companies who have polluted our waterways; we are not going to wait years to get investment in while pollution in our waterways gets even worse; and we are not going to let the pipes deteriorate to such an extent that bill payers are hit with even higher bills in the future. I am going to act to deliver us lower bills and clean water in the fastest way possible.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I know Battersea very well—it is a beautiful area—and I am aware of the problems with pollution. Of course, she knows all too well the concerns of her residents about escalating bills as a result of the failure of the previous Government to get a grip on the water sector. We will be publishing the White Paper and launching the consultation this autumn, which will be followed by legislation in the first half of this Parliament.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I know the River Ver very well because I used to walk over a bridge across it every day on my way to school while I was growing up. I would be very happy to make sure that the hon. Member has an appropriate meeting with a Minister to discuss her concerns.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman makes an important point, but I gently remind him that it was his Government who cut resources to the Environment Agency by 50%, which may well have had something to do with the fact that people were no longer there to enforce against the kinds of failings he talked about.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I completely agree with the hon. Member, who accurately pointed to the failures of both the SNP Government in Scotland and the nationalised model, which does not fix the problems.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Liberal Democrats’ conversion; when they were in government, and when the Water Minister was indeed a Liberal Democrat, they commissioned a report that found there was no need to change the model of regulation.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I agree with my hon. Friend that that is disgraceful. I am afraid that these problems arose because the previous Government instructed the regulators to apply only a light-touch approach to regulation, when they really needed to get an absolute grip on this failing sector. The previous Government failed to do that, but this Government will ensure that that happens.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady is quite right to point to the problems that we are experiencing because of the lack of reservoirs. As I said earlier, we are speeding up the consenting and the building of new reservoirs, so we have the means to catch the rain when it is falling and can use it during drier periods. She refers to leaks. The investment that we have secured will reduce leaks from water pipes, so we can help to conserve water for the purpose for which it is intended.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her question. Voters want to see action, not just words. That is why I am so proud that that £104 billion of investment that we have secured started to be spent in April. It is already being invested; people will see the change as a result of this. That will help to restore their confidence and their trust in politics, so shattered after 14 years of the Conservatives.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  We are increasing monitoring to 100% of all outlets. I note that representatives from the Conservative party will often try to take the credit for increasing monitoring. That is a good thing to have done, but what is not so good is to use it just to wave hello to the sewage as it floats on by and do nothing about reducing it.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady is right: transparency is always very important. I believe that data is available and am happy to write to direct her to it so she can share the information with her constituents.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. I speak regularly with my counterparts in Northern Ireland and am more than happy to convey his message to them the next time I speak to them.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  The state of the River Derwent is, alas, similar to many other rivers, lakes and seas up and down the country. That is why we are launching a water revolution today to completely reset the water sector from top to bottom so that the failings of the past can never happen again.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  Nationalising the water companies would, as I have already said, cost £100 billion—money that we would have to strip out of the national health service and education in order to hand to the people who own the water companies that have been polluting our waterways. It is not an idea that commends itself to me, I am afraid.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  Yes, we are looking at what recommendations we can bring forward early; others will be part of the consultation.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Member for making that important point. His constituents, just like people right across the country, were last year forced to pay the price of 14 years of Conservative failure, because the Conservatives allowed the companies to pay out millions in dividends and bonuses when that money should have been invested in upgrading infrastructure. I have ringfenced customers’ money so that it will now only be spent on the purposes for which it was intended; otherwise, it will be returned to customers.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  Monitoring will now be compulsory on every single outlet, not just some of them. That data will be published in near real time so that consumers know exactly what is going into the waterways in the area where they live or where they are on holiday.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for important question. We have already introduced the “polluter pays” principle, so where there are successful prosecutions and enforcement action against water companies, they pay the price for that enforcement. That funds the additional resources to allow further investigations—and, if necessary, prosecutions—to go ahead. What a contrast with the previous Government, who slashed those resources in half.