Biggest transformation in the history of water management since the Victorian era needed in Britain - Lee Pitcher

At Yorkshire Water I got to work with dedicated, hard working teams every day, doing the very best they could with what they had to work with, but fundamentally we now need a system that is right for the 21st century. We need a drainage system future proofed against everything that the climate will continue to throw at it as we get more intense wetter and drier periods. The last few weeks of wet weather and the localised flooding we’ve seen is proof of that. The recent letter that dropped through residents of Yorkshire’s doors, from the new CEO of Yorkshire Water, apologising for being slow to react to the situation of sewage in watercourses, is a first step. What we need to see now though are those words turned into action and solutions.

The size and scale of the action required needs to be in the form of unprecedented levels of change and investment. It means water company practices need to transform, as well as a full and thorough regulatory review to understand how to best help facilitate that change, in the quickest possible way. Of course, most important to me and local residents is that it doesn’t impact their pocket at this time when each day is a struggle due to the cost of living crisis.

In my final five years at Yorkshire Water, I felt I needed to push the boundaries, and help us think differently about how we did things. The traditional way of thinking was no longer going to get the industry to the place it must be. I worked on demonstrator projects to test and prove new ways of working. My work was all about collaborating with partners to manage water more holistically. I took the chance to feed those learnings into reviews by the National Infrastructure Commission. But we need to go further. The Labour Party is the only political party that will deliver when it comes to our water quality. We will deliver mandatory monitoring of all sewage outlets, give the Environment Agency the power to properly enforce the rules, and introduce a legally binding target to end 90 per cent of sewage discharges by 2030.

Under a Labour Government, if water companies routinely and systematically break the rules, they will be held properly to account, and failure to improve is paid for by eroding dividends, not added to customer bills or hitting vital investment in the system.

It's summertime now. Whether our kids are building sandcastles on the beach or walking in their wellies through rock pools, we all want peace of mind that they are not wading in polluted waters or coming into contact with sewage. It’s time for solution-based action, and a Labour government to work in partnership with water companies to take our water system out of the Victorian age.

Lee Pitcher is the Labour Party’s parliamentary candidate for Doncaster East and Axholme.