Environmental Targets (Water) (England) Regulations 2022

Motion to Approve

That the Regulations laid before the House on 19 December 2022 be approved.

My Lords, I beg to move that the draft environmental targets for water in England be approved. Water is one of our most precious natural resources. It is essential for human well-being, farming, food production and biodiversity.

I will briefly set out how the Government have massively increased action on water quality. We are tackling agricultural pollution at the source by doubling investment in catchment-sensitive farming and rolling out new schemes to reward sustainable farming. We launched our storm overflows discharge reduction plan to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history, with £56 billion of capital investment by 2050. Through the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, we will place a duty on water companies in England to upgrade wastewater treatment works in nutrient neutrality areas to the highest achievable technological levels. Our new long-term targets will tackle some of the biggest impacts on our water environment by stimulating action towards our ambition in the 25-year environment plan of clean and plentiful water.

I turn to the amendment to the Motion, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock, which gave rise to this debate. The amendment raises concern about the level of ambition of this new set of water targets and the recent river basin management plans published by the Environment Agency. The targets we are setting are ambitious and will have significant impact. They will deliver tangible improvements to the water environment. We are going as far as we can as fast as we can, while balancing the costs to business and people’s lives and complying with the Environment Act. I remind noble Lords that the Act says in Section 4:

“Before making regulations under sections 1 to 3 which set or amend a target the Secretary of State must be satisfied that the target, or amended target, can be met.”

The water framework regulations 2017 have always allowed an extended time frame beyond 2027 to allow water bodies to recover naturally once actions to stop emissions of certain pollutants have been carried out. That is specifically linked to this chemical issue and is not related to any other measures required by the water framework directive. The basis of the amendment to the Motion is therefore factually incorrect, and I am disappointed that the Opposition have decided deliberately to ignore the facts. It is for the noble Baroness to explain how she could have made such an error, or why she has worded the amendment to the Motion in such a misleading way.

We have categorically not amended the target timeline in the water framework directive regulations 2017, nor have we reduced the work involved to meet it. We remain committed to delivering clean and plentiful water, as set out in the 25-year environment plan. Those targets are absolutely critical to deliver the long-term improvements to the environment that we all want to see. However, I will be clear in saying that, if noble Lords on the Opposition Front Bench delay the adoption of those targets, they will not slow us down or slow down the action we will take to meet them; they will just let down the British people, who will see right through their amendment to the Motion.

I will return now to the details of the instrument. The instrument sets four legally binding targets for water, fulfilling the requirement under the Environment Act 2021. The Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) (England and Wales) Regulations 2017 already set an outcome-based, long-term target to improve the overall water environment. Under those regulations, we are committed to restoring 75% of water bodies to “good ecological status”. We do not simply want to replicate that, so we are setting four water targets to address some of the most specific pressures. The regulations are laid to create four new legally binding targets for water: to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution from agricultural land by 40%, and to reduce phosphorus from treated wastewater by 80%. Our abandoned metal mines target will seek to halve the length of rivers polluted by abandoned metal mines, and our water demand target aims to reduce water demand by 20%.

Pollution from the agriculture sector prevents 40% of water bodies in England from achieving our objectives for “good ecological status”. Our agriculture target will address three major sources of harm from this sector: nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment. Agriculture and wastewater are the biggest sources of nutrient pollution in the water environment. Agricultural nutrients enter the water environment through run-off and leaching from agricultural land; it accounts for an estimated 70% of nitrate inputs into our rivers, lakes and groundwaters, and 25% of the phosphorus load in our rivers and lakes.

To deliver the target, we will work with the agricultural sector to improve farming practices and we will reward farmers for incorporating sustainable methods and wildlife habitats into their farm as part of a profitable business. At every step, farmers will have access to free, face-to-face advice from the catchment-sensitive farming partnership. We will help farmers benefit from the technologies that could transform how our food is grown, including closed systems that capture excess nutrients for reuse, or reduced tillage systems that preserve the soil structure and reduce the need for fertilisers. Sadly, there still will be, and still are, polluters who will let the side down and end up threatening those collective efforts. If they do not accept our support, we will tackle them head on. We have increased the funding for Environment Agency enforcement officers to enable that and to focus them on the most sensitive areas.

Our second water target that addresses nutrient pollution is focused on reducing phosphorus pollution from treated wastewater. That new target is part of a wider programme of work started by Conservative Governments to improve water companies’ environmental performance. That includes, for example, £56 billion of capital investment by 2050 on storm overflows discharge reduction and £7.1 billion of investment by water companies on environmental improvements in the years 2020 to 2025, including £3.1 billion on storm overflow improvements specifically, driving 800 storm overflow improvements across England.

In 2013, when I was the Water Minister, I personally wrote to all water companies to direct them to roll out a systematic storm overflows monitoring programme for the first time. Only 5% of all storm overflows were known about at that point; by the end of this year, we will know every single one of them. The information that people have is largely due to measures that we took a decade ago to drive up that information base, because previous Governments had no idea what was going on.

We also made the environment a priority in the strategic policy statement for Ofwat for the first time. This included giving a clear expectation that it must challenge water companies to achieve zero pollution incidents by 2030. I repeat that, because some noble Lords have questioned me on this: to achieve zero pollution incidents by 2030. We also have a requirement for water companies to cut leakage by 50% by 2050.

Over the last two decades, phosphorus in treated wastewater discharged into rivers has reduced by 67%. However, monitoring shows that the amount of phosphorus in treated wastewater is still damaging to the water environment and that water companies are still the largest source of this nutrient pollution. That is why, in this price review period for 2020 to 2025 and following trials of new and improved techniques, the Environment Agency set a more stringent technically achievable limit for phosphorus reductions that could be applied to wastewater treatment works. To meet this target, we will work with the Environment Agency to tighten the permits on wastewater companies even further, by requiring an estimated 400 treatment works to meet the strictest limits for phosphorus.

Our amendment to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill will also contribute to the achievement of this target by requiring water companies to improve the performance of wastewater treatment works to the highest achievable technological levels for phosphorus in designated nutrient neutrality areas. Our approach balances ambition and significant changes that need to be made to meet our wider targets with impacts on customer bills. We also support the work that Ofwat is undertaking to link water company dividends with environmental performance and to scrutinise water company performance.

The third target will address metal pollution from abandoned metal mines. Metal mines are the biggest source of metal pollution in rivers and one of the top 10 pressures impacting the water environment. This causes acute local pressures where it appears, which has a high environmental and economic impact. Impacted rivers are polluted by high concentrations of at least one of cadmium, nickel, lead, copper, zinc or arsenic. Until the year 2000, mines could be abandoned without the mine operators having to take responsibility for the legacy of ongoing water pollution from their activities.

As most of the metal mines in England were abandoned by the early 1900s, it falls almost entirely to the Government to take action to mitigate continuing environmental harm. Without government action, the effects of these activities would typically continue for hundreds of years. We will deliver this target, along with the Coal Authority, through a tenfold increase in the existing water and abandoned metal mines programme and by upscaling our existing three treatment schemes to around 40, with a similar number of diffuse interventions. In the majority of catchments impacted by these mines there are few or no other reasons for failure, so tackling this pollution will support these rivers achieving good status.

Our fourth target will bring about a reduction in water demand to ensure a resilient supply of water in the face of climate change and an increasing population, and leave more water in the environment to support biodiversity. The recent dry weather conditions have driven the importance of this home to the British people more than ever before. Increased demand and reduced water availability is affecting the environment and reducing the security of our water supply. Public water supply represents around 30% of water abstracted from the environment and the majority of water abstracted across England but not returned directly to the environment.

Abstraction used for spray irrigation accounts for a small proportion of total national freshwater abstraction—between 1% and 2%. Of the additional 4,000 million litres of water a day which is estimated to be needed by 2050, half of this capacity will be met by demand reduction, through a reduction in water lost through leakage and a reduction in household and non-household water use. Industry-wide, water companies have reduced leakage by 11% since 2017-18. Through this new target we are pushing water companies to go further. The water demand target will ensure a sustainable level of water demand and help to leave more water in the environment for nature.