Every week Sussex Bylines will be publishing articles related to the general election on 4 July, covering both local and national issues. Broadly, our political sympathies are left of centre and, while Sussex Bylines does not endorse any one political party, we are keen to encourage collaboration between progressive parties and reduce tribalism. Published articles will reflect the views and political stance of individual writers and should not be taken as Sussex Bylines’ endorsement of those views.
Sewage — and its effect on our rivers and beaches — you can’t get away from it. And now, as the Tories sink under a welter of scandals, it could see them lose one of their safest Sussex seats — true blue Chichester, which has been loyally Conservative for 100 years.
Sewage was one of the key issues — along with general disillusion with the Tories — when the Liberal Democrats won control of the council in May 2023. And for the first time, the Tory incumbent, Education Minister Gillian Keegan, looks vulnerable despite a 21,490 majority in 2019.
Chichester’s Liberal Democrats are certainly hopeful and campaigning hard. In 2019, they came second to Keegan with just under 14,000 votes, with Labour and Greens trailing at around 9,000 and 2,500 respectively.
Lib Dem candidate Jessica Brown-Fuller says sewage pollution is one of the most talked about local issues on the doorstep. The concerns are various. “It is having an impact on people’s lives and livelihoods, and on our environment and tourism industry,” she told Sussex Bylines.
Sewage in the sea is an emerging national crisis
Our publication drew attention to the emerging national crisis three years ago in what we called our Toxic Shock series of articles. We wrote that “Raw sewage is being pumped into our seas at an alarming rate.” Since then, we have continued to highlight the issue.
Brown-Fuller told us in a break from campaigning: “We hear all the time about the inability of Southern Water to deal with wastewater and the unwillingness of the government to hold them to account.
“In April, the government passed new legislation further reducing Ofwat’s ability to hold the water companies to account. Meanwhile, the so-called landmark Environment Act 2021 removed strict restrictions on spilling untreated sewage into our waterways.”
After backlash from the public and House of Lords, ministers came up with a requirement for water companies to progressively reduce “the adverse impact of discharges from storm overflows”.
“What does that even mean?” asks Brown-Fuller. “That they can tell swimmers not to swim in the polluted sea and it will reduce the impact of the pollution?
“Since 2017, sewage incidents have increased massively and the volumes pumped into Chichester and Pagham Harbours, our chalk streams and our beaches doubled again last year.
“This is not just because companies have increased monitoring”, she added. “Every swimmer and surfer in the district tells us that the water quality has deteriorated, and the amount of algae growth is another indicator.”
The Liberal Democrats plan to tackle sewage pollution and reform the water industry by adopting the American model of ‘public benefit companies’. They also propose the creation of a new regulator which would have the power to ban bonuses for water company executives and revoke the licences of underperforming companies. Additionally, they want a sewage tax on water companies’ profits.
Tackling sewage is high on agenda for Labour and Greens
Tackling sewage — and the water companies — is also high on the agenda for both Labour and the Green Party.
Labour candidate for Chichester Tom Collinge notes that untreated sewage was discharged into the Lavant River for 273 days in 2023, but that “only Labour is promising to prosecute water bosses who repeatedly break the rules”.
Labour would put failing water companies under ‘special measures’; they would also block bonuses that — astonishingly — are regularly paid to water company bosses. Companies would face automatic fines for illegal spills. And executives of those companies would face criminal charges.
Labour is scathing about Tory inaction on the issue. The shadow environment secretary, Jim McMahon, said: “That the Tories have allowed villages, towns and cities across the country to be treated as open sewers shows that they have no respect for places where people live, work and holiday.”
Green candidate for Chichester Tim Young says: “As a coastal community, we are already experiencing the negative impacts of the current government’s failure to act on the environment. In the past year alone, residents have experienced devastating flooding in their homes and seen beaches polluted with raw sewage.”
Should the water companies be re-nationalised?
Reacting to earlier official figures, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: “Water companies continue to be allowed to dump ever more sewage into our rivers, waterways and coastal waters while splashing funds at shareholder dividends and fat cat salaries for water bosses.
“The £57 billion in payouts from the water industry over the last 30 years should have gone towards improving standards. Greens would end this failed experiment in privatisation, bringing the water companies back into public control so we can clean up this industry.”
Labour is ducking the nationalisation issue. But the assumption underlying its tough proposals is that investors would abandon the companies, making state control inevitable … and much cheaper.
Meanwhile, Southern Water has responded to calls for it to clean up its act by demanding the regulator Ofwat to allow it to nearly double Sussex water rates to just under £1,000 a year.
Ofwat hasn’t made a decision yet. So, this whopping increase — and a scramble for more cash by other water companies — is going to be a first major test for any incoming government, as disillusioned Tory voters in Chichester indicate.
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