Off the Fence with Dame Caroline Dinenage, MP for Gosport

As the Parliamentary summer term draws to an end I am certainly looking forward to being based in my constituency for the next few weeks. And one of the things I love best about living in the Gosport Peninsula is spending more time by the sea.

But this summer, many local people have been more concerned than ever about the quality of the water at our bathing sites. As someone who frequently swims off Stokes Bay, I hate the thought of stepping into polluted water.

In the middle of the recent heatwave the Environment Agency took the decision to err on the side of caution and close Hill Head and Lee on the Solent beaches after two incidents of a burst waste water pipe.

As if rubbing salt into the wound, the frustration of hearing about the state of our local waters is compounded when you read that the Chief Executive of Southern Water has been rewarded with a £691,000 'incentive' payment - effectively a 100% pay increase.

I’ve written to the CEO of Southern Water suggesting he might want to rethink the morality of accepting this payment against the backdrop of a prospective 46.7% rise in our Southern Water bills.

Sadly, this pay rise and others like it, seem to be a direct result of action by this Government to ban bonuses. The Chairman of Thames Water warned a Parliamentary Committee that there were ways around Labour’s bonus ban. Et voila!

Meanwhile, virtually all of the ‘new’ actions the Labour Government are taking to tackle the issue of water pollution had already been launched over two years ago under the previous Conservative government.

In 2023 Conservatives announced a £104 billion investment package in water infrastructure with the aim of cutting spills by 45%.

Labour now say they want to halve spills, but if you dig a little deeper, you’ll see that we promised to cut sewage spills by 45% of 2021 levels, whilst Labour’s commitment is from 2024, setting themselves a far easier baseline.

These things matter if we are to realise the ambitions set out in the Conservative 2021 Environment Act. That was the law we passed to force water companies to monitor sewage overflows (which resulted in 100% monitoring; up from 7% in 2010), and set out clear plans to reduce them. It’s another policy Labour have nicked for their big announcement this week.

I’m arranging a public meeting for my constituents with representatives from Southern Water in September, so they can hear from local people face to face.

What’s already clear is that our water companies need to recognise public anger and up their game.