Stuart Anderson MP calls for clarity as water restoration funding put in doubt
Stuart Anderson MP has requested urgent clarification on the future of a fund that is dedicated to improving water quality. Set up by the previous government, the Water Restoration Fund invested water company environmental fines and penalties from between April 2022 and October 2023 to directly improve the water environment.
The Fund has now been thrown into question, since the new government has not directed funds raised from fines since then to continuing with the scheme. Earlier in August, three water companies (Thames Water, Yorkshire Water, and Northumbrian Water) were fined £168 million. Yet, it has gone to HM Treasury.
Funding for the Water Restoration Fund came exclusively from water company fines and penalties, after the previous government legislated to introduce unlimited penalties on those who breached environmental permits and expanded the range of offences to which penalties could be applied - giving the Environment Agency the tools that they need to hold water companies to account.
The Fund was announced in the previous government’s long-term plan for water. It set out the ‘polluter-pays’ principle, meaning polluters pay for the damage they cause to the environment. It offered grant funding to accelerate or support projects that improve biodiversity and widen community access to blue and green spaces where water companies have been issued with fines or penalties.
Under the previous iteration of the Fund, local groups, farmers and landowners, and community-led schemes could bid for £11 million to bolster their capacity and capabilities for on-the-ground projects to improve the water environment. It built on a prior scheme, the Water Management Grant, which supports farmers to store more water on their land, support food production, and improve water security.
Stuart has now called for the scheme to be continued. He has urged the new government not to dilute the ‘polluter-pays’ principle by ring-fencing the money raised by HM Treasury from fines and penalties for local community projects that help to improve the water environment.
Stuart Anderson MP said:
“It was the previous government that gave the polluter-pays principle real meaning by introducing the Water Restoration Fund with an initial £11 million available to support and accelerate on-the-ground community projects that restore and improve water environments such as our rivers, canals, and lakes. I believe that the funds raised from fines and penalties levied on water polluters should continue to be invested directly to such projects that clean up our waterways. It would be deeply regrettable if the new government did not do so. Yet, it appears that money more recently paid by water companies has not yet been dedicated to the Fund. So, I have called on the government to ensure that the funds raised reach grassroots projects that improve the water environment.”
