Reacting to news that the Office for Environmental Protection has found that the government and regulators, Ofwat and the Environment Agency, may have failed in their legal duties to enforce clean water standards on privatised firms [1], Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said:
"The government must stop defending the indefensible and act to enforce the very basic expectations the public have for clean rivers and beaches, and clean water to drink.
"The public are fed up with Ministers claiming that private companies constantly discharging sewage into rivers and onto beaches is unacceptable, but then doing nothing to enforce existing laws.
"We don't need months more of legal squabbling between the regulators, government and privatised water companies.
"We need action now. That means the government forcing companies to invest rather than pay out shareholder dividends, capping excessive pay to failing water company bosses and bringing our water back into public ownership as soon as possible."
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