Lib Dem MP Lisa Smart demands Burnham overhauls water industry

Hazel Grove MP Lisa Smart has demanded that Andy Burnham make the radical overhaul of the broken water industry one of his first acts as Prime Minister. 

It follows new analysis of data confirming the devastating scale of environmental damage in Hazel Grove constituency, where United Utilities dumped sewage into local waterways for a staggering 3,972 hours last year across 797 separate spills.

Following years of environmental vandalism and financial mismanagement by water firms, MP Smart called on the UK Government to abandon its failed privatisation model and hand water infrastructure back to the public.

MP Lisa Smart said: “For years, people across our area have watched in anger as the likes of the River Goyt and Poise Brook have been pumped full of filthy sewage, all while foreign asset managers and corporate executives pocket billions.

"Andy Burnham has a clear choice in his first weeks in Number 10: stand up for communities like ours, or let the same broken, polluting system continue. 

“We need a clean break from these failed water companies – wiping the slate clean of vulture capital debt and handing our water infrastructure back to the people who actually use and rely on it.”

The Liberal Democrats are calling on the water companies to be put into “mutuals” – new organisations that are owned by the population, for public benefit, and to push through the promise to scrap the water regulator OFWAT, and replace it with a Clean Water Authrotiy, with powers to enforce strict environmental standards and crack down on repeat offenders. 

They also called for more transparent reporting, forcing water companies to report the volume, not just the duration, of sewage spills, and for an immediate, legally binding ban on all water company executive bonuses, free from loopholes.