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Polluting water firms face unlimited fines from today

Adam Vaughan
, Environment Editor
The Times
Under the new sanction regime, the Department for Environment and the Environment Agency can seek ­penalties for a wider range of offences
Under the new sanction regime, the Department for Environment and the Environment Agency can seek ­penalties for a wider range of offences
PA
Adam Vaughan
, Environment Editor
The Times

Water companies can be hit with unlimited financial penalties for polluting rivers and seas from today, after the government lifted a civil sanction cap.

As water groups are multibillion-pound businesses, the previous cap of £250,000 was seen as insufficient.

Thérèse Coffey, the former environment secretary, was initially thought to be rowing back on steep penalties but later committed to unlimited fines as anger from river campaigners and voters mounted over sewage pollution.

While the cap has now been lifted, in reality the fines might be in the low tens of millions of pounds for offences such as breaching permits for raw sewage discharges.

One town’s fight against sewage pollution

This year Alan Lovell, the chairman of the ­Environment Agency, said he thought the right number was not £250 million as some