Emma Hardy

Emma Hardy

Labour — Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice

Speaking in the House of Commons on 18 December 2025

Debate

Waterways

Contribution

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I thank her for raising that important issue and for her work on it and her passion. She is right to point out as well that the Environment Agency budget was cut by half under the previous Government, which left it powerless to clamp down on polluting water companies. We have been clear that the amount of sewage discharged into our waters is unacceptable. That is why we have already banned unfair bonuses for water bosses, introduced tougher automatic penalties to clamp down on pollution and secured money to upgrade storm overflows across England. But we are not stopping there, Mr Speaker; we don’t want to give you only that! We are going to give you more treats in the new year with our water White Paper, which will set out long term reforms to strengthen regulation, tackle pollution and accelerate the delivery of water infrastructure.

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