Saving River Tone from £4 billion sewage scandal

Water companies should be run in the interest of the public, not of private shareholders’ pockets, according to Taunton and Wellington’s MP, Gideon Amos.

He was speaking during a debate in Westminster Hall on the Water (Special Measures) Act.

Gideon is backing Liberal Democrat calls for a new model of water company ownership - mutually owned by customers and professionally managed.

“Our rivers are, of course, precious,” he said. “The Tone runs through and unites almost all parts of Taunton and Wellington. “It is a lifeline for biodiversity, for families and countryside lovers and for the whole natural world. When rivers are healthy, our communities and our nature flourish, but when they are polluted, we all suffer.”

But Gideon slammed the £4.25 billion paid out by Wessex Water to private shareholders since privatisation.

“Imagine if that £4 billion had been invested in our rivers and infrastructure over that time.”

He also highlighted massive bonuses paid to company bosses despite fines for pollution spills into rivers like the Tone, adding: “That is exactly the kind of behaviour that the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 was meant to prevent, but companies are getting around it by using parent company fee payments, fee payments generally and complex corporate structures to circumvent the rules.”

Gideon added: “The fundamental problem is that, while executives are exploiting loopholes to line their pockets, rivers are getting worse and dying. Customers are paying through higher bills, and communities are watching their local rivers fill with sewage.

“I checked just before coming to the debate, and north of Bradford on Tone and in Heron Gate and Lower Henlade in my constituency, sewage works are pumping sewage into the River Tone right now. Water company bosses should not be rewarded for that kind of behaviour through whatever corporate sleight of hand they are attempting to use. That is as real in my constituency as it is anywhere else.”

Gideon said that water companies should be run in the interest of the public, not of the private shareholders’ pockets.

“That would be a welcome reform for communities in Taunton and Wellington and, no doubt, across the country.

“In Taunton and Wellington, Wessex Water needs to reform and put this right. I welcome the action it is beginning to take, but we need real investment in the River Tone to improve bathing water quality, and water quality generally.

“Our sewage works must get the investment they need. The Government must close the loopholes whereby bonuses are paid in all but name, and we need to ban the parent company payments that circumvent those rules.

“We need to strengthen enforcement powers, give regulators teeth and hold companies accountable so that communities, such as mine, can have confidence that the water they pay for comes from a company that is set up and run in the interest of the public, not private profit.”