Environment Secretary Steve Reed puts his job on the line over water targets
The government has announced plans to halve sewage pollution from water companies by 2030, with the help of £104 billion of private investment. On the BBC this morning, Laura Kuenssberg interviewed Environment Secretary Steve Reed, noting that halving current sewage pollution would only bring us back to the levels of 2019, when there were 225,000 sewage spills. Reed claimed that that wasn’t the end of the government’s ambition, and said the target was to restore all water bodies to ‘good health’ within a decade. Reed emphasised that water pollution has got worse every year, and that Labour have drawn a line now to ‘turn this situation around’. He called for a ‘revolution in the rules that govern our water sector’ in order to meet targets where previous governments have failed. Kuenssberg asked if water companies would be allowed to increase bills again, and Reed admitted it would be up to the regulators. When asked if his job should be on the line if he fails to meet his targets, Reed replied, ‘it should be, shouldn’t it?’
Farage on nationalising 50% of the water industry: ‘It doesn’t need to be a big sum of money’
Also speaking to Kuenssberg about the water sector was Nigel Farage, who proposed taking half of the industry into public control. Kuenssberg pointed out that it could cost in the region of £50bn, and asked how much taxpayers money Farage would be willing to spend to achieve this goal. Farage said he didn’t know the figure, but he believed it would be ‘much less than that, if you strike the right deal’. Kuenssberg noted that Farage used to say Corbyn’s economics were from ‘La La Land’ when he wanted to nationalise water. Farage argued that he didn’t want government running water entirely, but that the state needed ‘some degree of control’.
Kevin Hollinrake: ‘I’m worried it might just be shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic’
It is expected that Ofwat will be abolished and replaced by a new water regulator, as a result of recommendations made by the review which will be published on Monday. On Sky News, Trevor Phillips asked Shadow Housing Secretary Kevin Hollinrake whether he supported that decision. Hollinrake said that ‘good regulation’ was necessary, and welcomed Labour’s new targets around water pollution, saying they were possible because of measures the Conservatives had put in place, but he compared the water industry to the ‘Titanic’. Phillips asked whether the Tories effectively launched the Titanic when they privatised the industry. Hollinrake argued that the level of investment achieved after privatisation wouldn’t have happened if it was in public control. Phillips noted that a lot more investment was required over the next couple of decades, and that companies couldn’t meet those amounts when answering to shareholders. Hollinrake suggested that in a nationalised system there wouldn’t be enough public money to invest in all essential public services.
Steve Reed: ‘If people think they’re more important than the team, they need to think again’
Trevor Phillips also asked Steve Reed about the four MPs who were suspended from Labour this week. The prime minister told reporters that ‘everyone was elected on a Labour manifesto of change’, and said he had to ‘deal with people who repeatedly break the whip’. Phillips pointed out that Starmer had declared the welfare reform bill to have the achieved the ‘right balance’ after amending it due to resistance from Rachael Maskell, who was then suspended. Phillips asked why she was being punished. Reed said, ‘it’s not about one incident, it is about the team’. When asked whether Starmer was being fair, the environment secretary argued it was fair to ‘be required to play the team game’, and said that Labour needed to get ‘big changes through’.
Farage on net zero: ‘This is not my religion’
Laura Kuenssberg also asked Nigel Farage about climate change, after Reform UK’s Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire Dame Andrea Jenkyns claimed it ‘doesn’t exist’ this week. Farage said he believed in climate change, but had ‘no idea’ what proportion of it was man-made. The Reform leader said net zero is the ‘religion of Westminster now in a fairly Godless age’, but claimed that 2.5 million manufacturing jobs in Britain could be gone ‘within the next decade’ because of net zero policies. Kuenssberg pointed out that there is scientific consensus that human activity has a significant impact on the climate. Farage argued that UK taxpayers were being ‘defrauded’ of billions of pounds because of renewable energy subsidies for ‘literally zero effect on global CO2 emissions’. Farage claimed that net zero policies just export manufacturing and emissions to other parts of the world.
Ed Davey: Move further towards renewable energy, not ‘expensive gas’
Finally, Laura Kuenssberg interviewed Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, who said he was ‘disappointed in this Labour government’, and called for ‘big ideas’ to counter Nigel Farage. Davey told Kuenssberg that we must ‘halve… businesses’ energy bills within the decade’, by investing further in renewable energy. He argued that it is the price of gas that has been raising energy bills, and that the Liberal Democrats have a plan to make the country less reliant on ‘expensive gas from Vladimir Putin’.
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