Living in Falmouth and bringing up my son by the beach for 19 years means I have seen the damage pollution can do to our coastline. That's why I was pleased to be selected to sit on the Water (Special Measures) Bill Committee last week as well as the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee to scrutinise the next critical steps that we take as a government towards clearing up our waters.

People write to me daily about sewage. In the 2024 annual bathing water classifications, Porthluney had its water quality designated as poor. During Storm Bert, sewage overflows were recorded in virtually all our rivers. It affects not just our residents but our visitors too. People come from all over to visit our coastline, but they are put off by raw sewage on the beaches. Sewage in the River Fal is part of what forced eleven shellfish sites in Cornwall to close in May 2023 due to dangerously high levels of E. coli. And we’ve seen problems with our infrastructure. Sewage flowing out onto roads in Penryn and the creek at Mylor. And a burst water main led to a loss of water pressure across a swathe of Cornwall last year with many people losing their water supply, including the hospital.

When I was elected I made cleaning up our coastline one of my top priorities as an MP, so I was pleased the new government also made it a priority. In July the Environment Secretary announced new rules ringfencing investment in infrastructure and then introduced the Water (Special Measures) Bill. The Bill delivers on the Government’s manifesto commitments to hold the water companies to account. It gives the Environment Agency more resource to bring criminal charges and fines, and makes them quicker and easier to enforce. Ofwat will have greater powers to halt performance-related pay bonuses. The Bill also introduces real-time monitoring of every sewage outlet. The committee examined the bill line by line. It took us two and a half days.

However this Bill is only the start of the process of cleaning up our water. The next step is a full independent review of our whole water system chaired by the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, Jon Cunliffe. Currently the water industry is regulated by four independent bodies, each with a specific area of responsibility and expertise: the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales, and Ofwat. The review will look not only at how the water industry is regulated but how it is owned and managed. Other than full nationalisation (which would cost £100-billion) nothing is off the table.

This is clearly needed. South West Water discharged sewage for nearly 540,000 hours in 2023, which is an 83 per cent rise compared with 2022. Cornwall has suffered from sewage spills for far too long. I am so pleased we are going to get on and deliver the tangible action required to protect our seas for future generations.

Jayne Kirkham, Labour MP for Truro and Falmouth