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Defra’s Strategic Policy Statement for Ofwat due in “next few weeks"

by Karma Loveday

Defra’s Strategic Policy Statement for Ofwat will be laid before Parliament “in the next few weeks,” Lord Benyon told peers last week during a question on water industry reform.


The discussion covered a wide range of issues including flooding, Environment Agency funding cuts, a water grid, and farming impacts, though water quality and sewage pollution dominated.


Lord Watts posed the question: “My Lords, is it not the case that our rivers are an absolute disgrace and the worst in Europe? Do we not need to sack the regulator and his group, introduce new legislation and have a Government who back the regulator?”


Defra’s Parliamentary undersecretary of state Lord Benyon replied: “This Government and the regulator are absolutely determined to see an improvement to the situation of sewage being released into rivers. Part of that problem is releases of sewage from water companies, part of it is from farming and part of it is from point-source pollution. It requires a holistic approach. I refer the noble Lord to the statutory policy statement, which has been released in draft and will be laid before Parliament in the next few weeks. It will give him the assurance I think he requires.”


Separately in the debate, Lord Benyon commented: "What we need most of all is continued investment in the infrastructure, some of which goes back to Edwardian times and does not reflect the fact that large numbers of new houses and businesses now exist and require that infrastructure to service them.”

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