The Times today published its view on saving UK’s rivers. And the message is clear: Labour’s bill to tackle pollution in coastal and inland waters depends on enforcement. The times states: As clean water campaigners have observed, new laws are meaningful only if the existing ones are enforced, and far too often that has not been the case. The Environment Agency’s funding was cut by roughly half in real terms between 2012 and 2022. In a recruitment and resources crisis, it has struggled to fulfil its remit. Its officers arrived late to the majority of serious pollution incidents between 2017 and 2023, or simply did not attend at all.
And The Times concludes: The roots of this failure lie in the greed and mismanagement of water companies, worsening agricultural pollution, and the operational toothlessness of industry watchdogs. The Water Bill is a valuable declaration of intent. But for the clean-up truly to begin, all these problems must be tackled at source.
