The Water (Special Measures Bill) which was recently introduced in the House of Lords can only be welcomed and can’t come soon enough. For too long, United Utilities, which operates as a monopoly in the North West, has had things far too easy. 

Whilst Bolton residents are paying on average £425 per year for their water, the service they are receiving is simply not up to scratch.

Last year, Louise Beardmore, the CEO of United Utilities, was reported to have earnt £1.4 million, of which £420,000 was a bonus. This begs the question, what for?

Meanwhile, Mary Street West in Horwich, recently saw flooding due to drainage that hadn’t been maintained adequately.

Whilst year in year out, we have flooding on Chorley New Road and Chorley Old Road causing major traffic disruption.

And then there’s the systemic degradation of our waterways with sewage.

Across the Bolton West constituency, in 2023, there were 28 storm overflow sites with 1,193 spill events, leading to a staggering 4,574 hours of sewage spills here.

This simply cannot continue! It has long been my view that water companies are held to account, with large fines for those who pollute our waterways with sewage and accountability where action is not taken to prevent flooding in known risk areas.

Our waterways across the borough are used for recreational purposes including angling, boating and paddling.

Under the Conservative government there was little fear of consequences for poor maintenance leading to flooding or sewage being discharged into our waterways. Sewage spills became acceptable.

That’s why throughout this Parliament, I’ll hold the water companies to account until our rivers are cleaned up and our properties are not flooded.

The Water (Special Measures) Bill will block bonuses for executives of companies that pollute our waterways, bring criminal charges against water companies that persistently break the law, enable severe finds for wrongdoing, ensure monitoring of every sewage outlet and finally ensure that water companies are properly held to account. 

In Parliament I have consistently pressed the government to clean up out waterways, ensure we have better access to them to improve health outcomes and invest to tackle flooding. I am pleased the government has started down this path already.