Thames Water chiefs who allow sewage to be pumped into London’s rivers will face “criminal charges” under hardline Labour plans to clean up Britain’s waterways.
Shadow environment secretary Steve Reed on Wednesday pledged to put water firms under special measures and prosecute bosses if they continue to oversee the illegal dumping of “toxic filth”.
Regulator Ofwat will also be given the power to ban payments of bonuses over spills if Labour wins the general election on July 4.
“The water bosses will face criminal charges if they continue to allow the illegal dumping of record levels of sewage into our rivers,” Mr Reed told the Standard.
“That is the quickest way to focus the minds of the people who runs these companies on cleaning up our water.”
Billions of litres of waste was dumped into the Thames alone in 2023.
At the same time customers saw bills increase by an average of 12.1 per cent in April, with bosses at the troubled company refusing to rule out future increases of up to 40 per cent as it struggles with debts and interest payments.
It comes amid reports that Ofwat is drawing up plans for a special “recovery regime” which would cut sewage fines for Thames Water and other firms in a bid to avoid nationalisation.
Companies with the status could receive fewer or no regulatory penalties to encourage them to invest in infrastructure improvements instead, the FT reported.
Mr Reed, speaking from Cator Park in Beckenham where sewage has been pumped into local streams, said nationalisation was not the way to deal with failing firms.
“If we were to look at nationalising not only would it cost tens of billions of pounds which the country can’t afford, but it would take years to do because you’d have to buy out the existing owners and during that time levels of pollution would get even worse,” he said.
“My objective is to get the water cleaned up as quickly as possible so you do that by putting the water companies, including Thames Water, under tough special measures, make the water bosses face criminal charges if they don’t get on and clean up their act and their toxic filth.”
Labour’s plan has received the backing of campaigner and former Undertones frontman Feargal Sharkey.
He told the Standard: “A month ago I was on the verge of despair, despondency, banging my head against a wall…After 13 years of a Conservative government who were taken to court over sewage 10 years ago and did nothing, I’m not prepared to spend another ten years of my life with a government not prepared to do its job.”
