Lib Dems announce £10m fund for new Sewage Inspectors to crack down on dumping

The Liberal Democrats have announced plans to increase the number of water inspections after sewage was dumped 40 times in 2023 in waterways in Devon.

The party has pledged £10 million per year to deliver new water quality inspectors, as part of an ambition to recruit at least one hundred new ‘sewage-busters’.

The new water quality inspectors would work for the party’s new water regulator, the Clean Water Authority, giving it the capacity to deliver unannounced inspections, ensuring water firms cannot cover up pollution.

Under the party’s proposals, the water regulator Ofwat would be replaced with a new Clean Water Authority which would take on relevant powers to inspect and clean up waterways in England from the Environment Agency.

Richard Foord, Liberal Democrat candidate for Honiton & Sidmouth, has said this “ambitious plan of oversight” would save waterways across Mid and East Devon – which have been deluged with sewage in recent years.

Richard Foord said:

“It is a scandal that this Conservative government has continued to allow water firms to mark their own homework.

“They’ve turned a blind eye to the sewage scandal that is destroying our beautiful countryside, hurting both our local environment but also our tourist industry.

“That’s why we need urgent changes, to ensure South West Water cannot continue to get away with polluting our treasured rivers and beaches. 

“The Liberal Democrats would reform the environmental regulator and hire a new team of sewage-busting inspectors to help put a stop to this dreadful scandal.”