Downing Street has failed to confirm whether the Environment Agency will receive more funding to ramp up monitoring of water companies.
Environment Secretary Steve Barclay told the chief executives of England’s main wastewater firms that the era of self-monitoring is over at a meeting this week.
The Environment Agency will take over responsibility for reporting.
It is unclear whether the body, which has historically low levels of funding because of austerity cuts, will receive extra funding to take on the task.
A Downing Street spokeswoman insisted the Government has the plans and resources to ensure water firms are not “profiting from environmental damage”.
She said: “Through our Plan for Water, we have stepped up the enforcement and supporting the Environment Agency in doing so.
“They are able to step up their enforcement and Ofwat can handover unlimited fines to water companies for sewage and for poor performance so we’re content that we have the right plans in place.”
When asked whether the Environment Agency was adequately funded, she said: “Yes, more broadly there is a process that is followed for departments and agencies where we set out their funding but certainly we are confident that we have the right resources and plans in place to ensure that we can clean up our rivers and make sure that water companies aren’t profiting from environmental damage.
“We’re working with the EA to deliver that Plan for Water and of course with Ofwat to step up enforcement and hand out fines.”
Mr Barclay is reported to have pledged a 470 per cent increase in water company inspections by officials.
He told the heads of ten water firms that the system of self-reporting, which he called “marking their own homework”, had to end.
Around £26 million in bonuses and long-term incentives has been paid out to water chiefs since 2019, an analysis found this week.
There were more than 300,000 sewage spills into rivers and seas in 2022, which are legally allowed under permits.
But there is increasing worry that some of those discharges were illegal.
The Daily Express has highlighted the state of the nation’s waterways through the Green Britain Needs You campaign.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “The Environment Secretary has been clear that he wants to reduce the reliance on self-monitoring introduced in 2009 by bringing in significantly more EA inspections and spot checks of water company assets.
“This is part of the government’s determination to hold companies to account – alongside trebling Ofwat’s enforcement capacity, increasing monitoring from seven per cent in 2010 to 100 per cent now, and empowering the Environment Agency to hand out unlimited financial penalties.”
