A load of squit? - a high profile vote on Environment Bill

The Environment Bill will ensure that the environment is at the heart of all decisions made and that current and future Governments are held accountable if they fail to uphold their environmental duties.

Protecting our environment is one of my key local priorities. Constituents have contacted me directly to share their views on Amendment 45 to the Environment Bill, so I wanted to take the opportunity to explain why I voted the way I did.  

The amendment to the bill was to implement a complete ban on the use of storm overflows in sewage systems. In theory we all agree with a ban on storm overflows. However, in practice our sewage systems work by allowing discharges in extreme rainfall to prevent flooding. 

The issue with this section in the amendment is that it didn’t include a detailed plan on how these measures would be delivered or what the impact of implementing these measures would have been.

A complete ban  on the use of storm overflows would mean that most sewage systems would need to be reinstalled and in some cases it wouldn’t be possible to get a sewage system in place without sewage being discharged into pavements, fields etc, with the initial estimated cost to make these changes to the system between £150 billion to £650 billion.

It is important that the Government is addressing these details and not giving water companies full financial lability which would see these costs passed on to customers.

However, I was pleased to support the other amendments to the Environment Bill relating to storm overflows (including the rest of Amendment 45).

Separate amendments are also  in the Bill relating to storm overflows, including one which will place a duty on the Government to publish a plan by September 2022 to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows.

This is about getting the legislation right and my view was that it would have been irresponsible to have inserted this section in the Bill given that it was not backed by a detailed plan and thorough impact assessment.

The amendment has gone back to the House of Lords and I expect there will be more back-and-forth between the Lords and the Commons on it shortly, which might include more proposals for dealing with sewage and other issues, and more votes. I will continue to follow the Environment Bill closely on behalf of constituents, as it continues to make progress through Parliament.