UK Environment Ministry Having To Fight To Ensure That $13.5 Million In Sewage Cleanup Funds 2B Used For That Purpose

Rachel Reeves’s Treasury is looking to keep millions of pounds levied on polluting water companies in fines that were meant to be earmarked for sewage cleanup, the Guardian has learned. The £11m water restoration fund was announced before the election last year, with projects bidding for the cash to improve waterways and repair damage done by sewage pollution in areas where fines have been imposed.

However, the Treasury is in discussions about keeping the money to use it for unrelated purposes at a time of huge pressure on the public finances and rising debt interest costs. The move would be hugely disappointing to small projects that have bid for the money to clean up sewage-ridden waterways and were expecting to get the cash last July, only to see it delayed by the election.

Although £11m is only a small pot of money, environmental charities believe the fund is projected to rise substantially as the regulator begins to get tougher on polluting water companies. Last summer, it emerged Thames, Yorkshire and Northumbrian Water would be fined a record £168m between them for a “catalogue of failure” over illegal sewage discharges into rivers and the sea.

The issue is politically significant as there is huge public anger about sewage pollution and both Labour and the Liberal Democrats challenged the previous government over its poor record on holding the water companies to account at the last election.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/19/treasury-seeks-to-keep-water-firm-fines-earmarked-for-sewage-cleanups