Comment: The government’s Water White Paper isn’t enough

By Jess Brown-Fuller MP

Communities across Chichester are fed up with empty promises while their rivers, harbours and coastlines continue to be polluted by sewage. This week, while we deal with flooded roads across the constituency, we will no doubt also see storm overflows discharging along the coast and into our precious chalk streams. That is the reality the government needed to confront when it published its Water White Paper last week.  

While I welcome the fact that ministers have finally acknowledged the scale of public frustration, the proposals fall short of the fundamental reform that is needed. 

The White Paper includes some steps in the right direction, aimed at improving oversight and strengthening accountability within the water sector. That recognition matters. But when sewage pollution remains widespread, incremental change is not enough to fix a broken system. 

Jess Brown-Fuller in Itchneor

Creating a new executive role, including a Chief Engineer, may improve technical leadership, but new job titles alone will not stop sewage being discharged into our waterways. The deeper problem lies in an ownership and regulatory model that allows water companies to prioritise profit over performance, with too little consequence when things go wrong. 

I see the consequences of that failure locally. In December, I wrote to Southern Water after multiple prolonged sewage releases directly impacted Chichester Harbour and surrounding waters. Discharges at Bracklesham Bay and Thornham lasted for days, and at the time Southern Water’s own data showed multiple ongoing or recently ended sewage releases across the Chichester area. These are not isolated incidents. 

Water companies are still not required to publish the volume of sewage they dump, only the duration of spills. Without that information, the public cannot see the true scale of the problem, and trust cannot be rebuilt. 

What makes this even harder for residents to accept is the contrast between environmental damage and corporate reward. While families are warned to stay out of the water, water company bosses continue to receive eye-watering bonuses, disguised as pay rises. I raised this in Parliament after Southern Water’s CEO accepted a substantial pay increase at a time when sewage pollution was still blighting our local waters. This was bonus in all but name, and the White Paper fails to outline how it will be addressed. That sends entirely the wrong message to residents. 

If we want different outcomes, we need a different approach. The Liberal Democrats are calling for a serious refit of the water sector, including a new ownership model where companies are mutually owned by their customers and professionally managed, putting environmental protection and long-term resilience first. 

This White Paper shows that the government knows there is a problem. But knowing is not enough. Our waterways deserve action that matches the scale of the crisis, and our communities deserve nothing less.