Here in Uttlesford we have rivers – including globally rare chalk streams – polluted by phosphate in water recycled from sewage treatment works. That’s on top of sewage overflows.
Our drinking water is extracted from the chalk aquifer, a source that at one time was one of the purest available but has long since been abused and over-extracted, in turn damaging our rivers. We have 15 miles of motorway dividing the length of the district, creating airborne pollutants and run-off tainted by brake dust and soluble pollutants.
As citizens and taxpayers we should be able to take comfort from the protections provided by the EA, the Environment Agency – but we can’t.
A consequence of the previous government’s obsession with facilitating growth through de-regulation is a hollowed-out EA ordered not to stand in the way of business. Austerity was the perfect pretext. By 2022 the agency had been cut back so far that it could no longer improve the environment or deter polluters
“Government knew it couldn’t have a political argument about winding back environmental law, because the public likes environmental law. So instead, they set out to kill environmental law by stealth.”
Tom Burke, former director of Friends of the Earth and a special adviser to three Secretaries of State for the Environment.
BURYING THE TRUTH
The head of the EA is on record that freedom of information requests about the agency’s performance are frequently buried because the truth about the environment in England is “embarrassing”. The Information Commissioner issued an enforcement notice in August 2023 requiring the EA to comply with the terms of the Freedom of Information Act. If you’d like to check the full extent of the Enforcement order it is ENF0987659 and can be seen at ice.org.uk
The way the agency has been disembowelled is a sordid tale of ministerial action, particularly during and since Liz Truss’ tenure as Environment Secretary (2014-16). It is doubly sad because the EA was one of the best environmental regulators and monitors in the world and has lost many excellent people.
WAKE UP CALL
It took the sewage scandal to remind Govt that we need effective Environmental control. Yet, instead of resourcing and enabling the EA to do its job properly, the government in 2021 launched the Office of Environmental Protection (OEP), a body with a bark but no teeth and none of the powers of enforcement held by the EA.
Without a shred of Irony, the OEP announced it would have powers to “identify and respond to serious failures to comply with environmental law by Govt and other public authorities” but that taking action against polluters would remain the responsibility of the Environment Agency.
Of the 40 environmental targets govt set for itself after Brexit, which include managing the use of harmful chemicals and improving air quality, the country is now on track to reach just four.
ENVIRONMENT AGENCY TIMELINE
1989 Nine Regional Water Authorities merged to create the National Rivers Authority (NRA), while responsibility for water supply and sewerage was taken over by newly privatised water companies.
1996 NRA is rolled into the newly created Environment Agency together with HM Inspectorate of Pollution and local authority waste regulation functions.
2012 Prime Minister Cameron unveils a report entitled No Stone Unturned: In Pursuit of Growth, which recommends that all “non-economic regulators” – from the Environment Agency to English Heritage – should be held accountable for the economic consequences of their decisions. Every regulator now has to abide by a government-mandated “growth duty”.
2021 Funding for environmental protection cut by 80% between 2010 and 2021. EA staff told to stop investigating many calls from the public due to lack of resources. The number of prosecutions fell from 800 in 2007 to just 17 in 2021. Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) created to ensure that regulators such as the Environment Agency do their job properly (yes, seriously!).
2023/24 The Department for Business identifies fines, and the negative publicity that stems from companies breaking the rules, as particular threats to growth.