MPs are expected to demand that Fines from water companies that pollute rivers be ringfenced by law to be spent on restoring water quality in rivers.
The Treasury is trying to take control of £11m in fines from water companies, which was intended for small charities to restore rivers, in a move criticised by river restoration campaigners as “appalling”. In an attempt to protect the water restoration fund, and ensure future fines collected from water companies are used to restore the river environment, the Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron is seeking an amendment on Tuesday to the water special measures bill in parliament.
Mark Lloyd, the chief executive of the Rivers Trust, which supports the amendment, along with other environmental charities, said: “Rumours that the water restoration fund will be abandoned and the money swallowed up by the Treasury have troubled us deeply.
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“This course of action would seriously – perhaps irreversibly – damage the chances of achieving our vision of wild, healthy, natural rivers, and would not be in accordance with one of the government’s key manifesto pledges and Defra’s top priority mission.”
Farron’s amendment is one of a number being debated on Tuesday. The Labour MP Clive Lewis is backing an amendment proposed by Farron to stop bill payers being forced to bail out failing water companies if they are taken into special administration. The amendment comes as the government moves towards putting struggling Thames Water into special administration, as the biggest of the privatised water companies tries to face down bankruptcy.
As it stands, Labour’s water special measures bill would leave customers at risk of paying the cost of Thames’s debts to creditors in the form of higher bills if it goes into special administration. Thames Water, which provides water and sewerage services to 16 million customers in London and south-east England, has been on the brink of collapse for months as it struggles under a £15bn debt pile.
Farron’s amendment would allow up to 100% of debts to be cancelled in the event of special administration proceedings, protecting customers from any attempt to get them to pay off creditors via bill rises.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
