Environmentalists have urged Defra to reconsider its plans to scale back water company environmental improvements at PR24 because of pressure on bills.
An open letter signed by 15 organisations led by Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL) to environment secretary, Therese Coffey, said such a move would be “a complete false economy” as the cost of delaying essential investments would far exceed targeted and efficient action now. Nor, they said, would such an approach be in keeping with public expectations or willingness to pay to tackle pollution and improve water quality.
The coalition continued: “This requirement on companies is out of step with the Government’s commitment to halt the decline of nature by 2030 and reverse it by 2042. It also contradicts Defra’s latest Strategic Policy Statement to Ofwat, which named ‘protect and enhance the environment’ as the top strategic priority for the water industry.”
The action followed reported letters from Defra and the Environment Agency requiring water companies to explore the deferral of many environmental projects under the Water Industry National Environment Programme and Water Resources Management Plans, in the context of households struggling to pay utility bills. This reportedly included the suggestion that low climate change impacts could be assumed.
The WCL letter accepted a need for prioritisation at PR24, but urged:
• a universal social tariff should be implemented to protect the most vulnerable customers from rising bills; and
• better value could be derived from allowing investment in catchment and nature-based solutions, rather than narrowly focusing on engineering solutions to storm spills and nutrient control.
WCL wrote:“One simple step would be to accept Baroness Willis’s amendment to Clause 158 of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, to empower the water industry to make greater use of nature and catchment-based solutions to manage nutrient pollution at wastewater treatment works.”
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