24/09/2026
Lisa Smart MP
Mon, Sep 21, 11:03 AM (3 days ago)
to me
Dear Diane Coffey
Thank you for contacting me about sewage pollution and the future of our water industry.
The state of our rivers matters enormously to me. I regularly walk along the River Goyt with my rescue dog Bonnie, and I have not forgotten the local teenagers left bedridden with infections after an end-of-term swim. From the Goyt to Poise Brook, the Mersey and the Tame, water companies have polluted our rivers for years. Enough is enough.
The impact of the sewage scandal is devastating. Heather Preen's death after contracting E. coli from sewage exposure is a tragedy that must never be repeated. Campaigners such as Ash Smith and Professor Peter Hammond brought the true scale of the scandal to light, and groups such as Surfers Against Sewage have kept up the pressure. It is only right that local campaigners and environmental experts get a real say in holding water companies to account, including seats on water company boards.
I believe the current ownership model has failed. Since privatisation, water companies have built up £70 billion of debt and paid out £83 billion in dividends. Up to a third of customers' bills now goes on servicing that debt. That is money coming out of your pocket to pay for other people's decisions.
We need a clean break, with water taken out of the hands of shareholders and run for the people who rely on it. The Liberal Democrats are calling for water companies to become mutually owned public benefit corporations. They would be owned by customers, professionally managed and not driven by shareholder profit. The Government would be in a far stronger position when dealing with failing, heavily indebted companies. Debt should sit with the companies who ran it up, not with bill payers or taxpayers.
Thames Water shows what happens when this model breaks down. It serves 16 million people and carries over £15 billion of debt that it has said it cannot repay. A third of its customers' bills go on servicing that debt. It paid just £24.5 million of its £123 million fine before being allowed a deferred payment plan.
With a controversial creditor-led deal on the table, I have serious concerns about whether it will fix the company's failures on the environment or for customers. The Liberal Democrats have long called for Thames Water to be placed into Special Administration. My Lib Dem colleague Tim Farron MP, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Spokesperson, has argued in Parliament that the Government should go further and bring the company into mutual ownership.
During the passage of the Water (Special Measures) Act, the Liberal Democrats tabled 44 amendments. These included:
requiring creditors, not customers, to cover debt costs
setting thresholds for when failing companies should enter special administration
scrapping Ofwat
Neither the Government nor the Conservatives backed a single one.
The Government has finally accepted our call, made since 2022, to replace Ofwat. However, its Water White Paper does not go far enough, and a new Chief Engineer post simply doesn't cut it. The Government has promised a Water Reform Bill. My Lib Dem colleagues and I want that Bill to deliver:
a new Clean Water Authority with real teeth to replace Ofwat
mutual ownership of water companies
mandatory reporting of the volume of sewage discharged, not just how long spills last
a ban on bonuses for water bosses, free from loopholes, until spills end and leaks are fixed
an end to sewage dumping at bathing sites by 2030, and tougher triggers for Special Administration
a single social tariff to end water poverty
I have been actively working on this in Parliament.
In June 2025, I tabled amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill. They would have created an offence for water companies that fail to meet their pollution commitments and made senior managers personally liable. I told the House that sewage discharges in our constituency had added up to almost 200 days the previous year. The Government voted these amendments down.
In April 2026, I signed Early Day Motion 3029 on water sector reform. It calls for mutual ownership, a Clean Water Authority, a review of the triggers for Special Administration, publication of sewage volume data and a single social tariff.
I spoke in the Water White Paper debate on 21 January 2026. I raised the pressures on the Canal & River Trust, which looks after 74 reservoirs and cannot pass rising costs on to customers the way water companies do.
I have also been pursuing rising water bills in Parliament. On 29 August 2025, I submitted the following written question to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
"To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent excessive annual increases in household water bills in Hazel Grove constituency."
My work on this began long before I was elected. As a Stockport councillor, I launched the first scrutiny review into sewage dumping by any local authority in the country. I have tested water quality in the River Goyt and joined sewage protest walks in Romiley. Since becoming your MP, I have pushed United Utilities to go further and faster on improvements to our local network, and I will keep holding them to account.
Thank you for taking the time to write to me. Our community deserves clean rivers, fair bills and a water industry that works for the people who pay for it.
Yours sincerely,
Lisa
LISA SMART MP
Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Hazel Grove
