Water bills should freeze while sewage threatens Santa swims and surfing, an MP has said.
Ben Maguire called for new limits in the Commons on Thursday, after the watchdog Ofwat said it will allow firms to raise average bills by £31 a year over the next five years.
Surf therapy charity The Wave Project cancelled its annual Santa Surf event at Newquay’s Fistral Beach in Cornwall last month, according to a post on its chief executive Ramon Van de Velde’s LinkedIn account.
He said “an ocean full of sewage is not a safe space – not good for your health and wellbeing” after a storm overflow discharge, and said the state of waterways is “a political issue, and something our politicians can and should solve”.
Mr Maguire, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall, told the Commons: “North Cornwall has world-class beaches and rivers but Santa swims have been cancelled due to the constant dumping of raw sewage.
“Meanwhile, water companies receive millions from billpayers but then the very next day give it away to their shareholders.”
He called for a “total ban on water bill rises” until the end of the sewage dumping “scandal”, which he described as “the best gift (Environment Secretary Steve Reed) could give (his) constituents this Christmas”.
Mr Reed replied: “(Mr Maguire) is quite right to point to the scandalous situation the previous government left our waterways in, with record levels of pollution, raw sewage, filthy in our rivers, lakes and seas.
“I have appointed Sir Jon Cunliffe to lead a commission to review on governance and regulation so we can stop it ever happening again.”
The Cabinet minister had earlier said: “I share customers’ anger at the water bill rises announced by Ofwat this morning. Customers have been left to pay the price of Conservative failure after the previous government let companies spend millions on bonuses and shareholder payouts instead of investing in our crumbling sewage infrastructure.
“If you find cracks in your house and do nothing about it for over a decade, the problem gets worse and the cost of fixing it escalates, and that is exactly what has happened to our sewage system.”
He told MPs the Government’s Water (Special Measures) Bill will “curb unjustified bonuses” and have money ringfenced for future investment.
Ofwat said it will allow companies to raise average bills by £31 a year, or £157 in total, over the next five years to £597 by 2030 to help finance a £104 billion upgrade for the sector.
That represents a 36% increase before inflation, which will be added on top.
South West Water confirmed there was a sewage spill on the day before the event in Newquay.
A spokesperson said: “We did not have any storm overflow spills at Fistral Beach on the day of the scheduled event.
“We did have a spill on Friday afternoon (November 29) – of less than an hour – as a result of heavy rainfall and issued an alert to advise of a potential impact to bathing water quality, however the alert was removed in the early hours of Saturday morning following a full tidal cycle.
“We know our customers want to see immediate action to reduce the use of storm overflows and this is an absolute priority as part of the £2.8 billion we are investing between 2025-2030.”