Taunton and Wellington MP, Gideon Amos, has welcomed the news that Ofwat is being replaced by a tougher water regulator as a victory for local people.
Scrapping Ofwat and bringing in much stronger regulation of water companies to tackle sewage dumping was a key commitment in the Liberal Democrat manifesto last year.
Mr Amos has called repeatedly for action on water regulation and has been campaigning for years to clean up the River Tone which runs through his constituency.
On Saturday, he was one of the speakers at a special event to conclude ‘Water Week’, run by environmental group Transition Town Wellington.
He said: “Supporting the great volunteers in Wellington in their work trying to protect our River Tone, underlined for me the scandal of sewage being pumped into our rivers while massive profits are extracted and sent overseas.
“Figures just released of 260 days of serious sewage spills by Wessex Water in 2024, are a scandal.
“Even worse, as I pointed out, last year Wessex Water paid out £70 million in profits to shareholders, part of £4 billion paid out since the privatisation of our water by the Conservatives - something I always opposed.
“Volunteers in Wellington and those in Taunton, who helped me apply for Bathing Water Status as a way to make cleanup happen, will be pleased to hear the overdue announcement that Ofwat is to be abolished and that the government now wants to be tougher on the water companies.
“That’s a win for the Lib Dems as we’ve been calling for it to be scrapped since 2022.
“But government now has to deliver, create a tougher regulator, turn water firms into public benefit companies and fully ban bonuses for polluting businesses still being added in the form of even higher salaries. That's not acceptable.
“We also need to make sure all these profits - made out of water, a free and natural resource – are not charged back to local people through higher bills. People can’t afford it.
"I’m not going to stop working on this, and nor are my fellow LibDems in Parliament, until government gets tough on these firms and our rivers and waterways are less polluted”.
