Pledging review of services, Jarvis said Labour was not in the business of ‘cutting corners’ with the armed forces
The Labour government is telling privatised water companies in England and Wales that they must ringfence funding for infrastructure upgrades, and stop diverting money to bonuses, dividends or salary increases.
In a statement, the new secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, Steve Reed says:
We will never look the other way while water companies pump sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas. This unacceptable destruction of our waterways should never have been allowed, but change has now begun so it can never happen again.
Today I have announced significant steps to clean up the water industry to cut sewage pollution, protect customers and attract investment to upgrade its crumbling infrastructure. That change will take time. Over the coming weeks and months, this Government will outline further steps to reform the water sector and restore our rivers, lakes and seas to good health.
I think there’s a very strong sense, and I know this from talking to people throughout the course of the election, that our water companies have not provided the level of service that we expect.
Bills are too high. There are huge concerns about the illegal dumping on waterways.
