Danny responds to Channel 4's 'Dirty Business'

Danny says:

Since the water companies were privatised in the 1980s, they’ve paid out billions in dividends and CEO bonuses, all while piling up debt. At the same time, they’ve been dumping untreated sewage into our rivers, chalk streams and across our coastlines. 

But it’s not just costing us money. As Channel 4's ‘Dirty Business’ drama shows - it’s costing us lives too.

Liberal Democrats have long been calling for action to hold the companies to account and clean up their act. So far, this government is moving far too slowly, while the Conservatives who came before them did nothing at all.

Alongside the Winchester Liberal Democrats councillors, I’ve long been working with campaigners and conservation groups, such as the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and Project White Hart, to monitor river health and protect them from further damage.

This government should scrap Ofwat and replace it with a new regulator that actually has the powers to hold companies to account. It should ban bosses’ bonuses. It should transform every water company into a Public Benefit Company with environmental experts on its board, forcing them to meet strict environmental standards before they can pay dividends. There's absolutely no reason for them not to have done this already - if they cared, they would.

I do hope Government ministers take the time to watch ‘Dirty Business’. It makes the decades of failure from the water industry so incredibly clear. As we’ve been asking for years now, it’s time they made it a top priority.