Public “kept in the dark” over water company sewage spills, says MP

Helen Morgan has criticised new Government proposals for the water industry, warning that they fail to deliver the change needed to protect local waterways.

Helen Morgan, MP for North Shropshire, said the Water White Paper, which aims to bring in promised water industry reforms, does not go far enough to stop sewage dumping.

The MP added that the Government was “pulling its punches” and joined her Liberal Democrat colleagues in calling for water companies to be mutually owned by customers and professionally managed through a new ownership model.

Responding to the Government announcement, Helen echoed the concerns of Lib Dem Environment Spokesperson, Tim Farron, and said: “The Government has pulled its punches with its Water White Paper. We need a complete overhaul of how our waterways are regulated and run.

“The Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to force water companies to record and publish the volume of sewage they dump - not just the duration of spills.”

Figures have yet to be released for 2025, but data from 2024 showed sewage pouring non-stop into the worst-affected waterways for a quarter of the year.

The River Roden in Wem and the Common Brook, a tributary of the River Perry near Oswestry, both had sewage spilling into them for more than 2,000 hours.

The total hours that excrement was pumped into North Shropshire streams and rivers increased by 33 per cent compared to the previous year, with the River Morda in Oswestry, Tetchill Brook in Ellesmere and the River Vyrnwy in Llanymynech also badly hit.

As well as revealing the impact on North Shropshire, the data from the Environment Agency showed that Severn Trent pumped 454,155 hours worth of sewage into waterways in 2024, while for Welsh Water the figure was 31,770.

At the time, Helen called on the Government to put a stop to the sewage scandal by replacing Ofwat with a regulator that had the power to hold water companies to account.

Now, almost a year on, Helen said people in North Shropshire were “fed up with empty promises”.

She added: “It’s disgraceful that the Conservatives allowed the situation to get so bad and the new Labour government has failed to get a grip on the crisis, all while our precious local environment is ravaged by corporate greed.

“We cannot bring an end to the sewage scandal without reliable data to hold water companies accountable. The public are being kept in the dark about the true scale of the pollution in our rivers.”