Regulation of the Water and Sewage Industry

4.00.00pm GMT Mon 17th Jan 2005

MP Vincent Cable has secured a debate in parliament on Tuesday 18th January on the regulation of the water and sewage industry, focusing in particular on Mogden.

He said that: "quite a lot of progress has been made in getting Thames Water and the government to understand that the current levels of odour pollution - and other practices such as dumping raw sewage in the Thames - are unacceptable".

"But we have reached something of an impasse. The industry has prepared plans to cover the site but says it cannot get approval for its investment plans from the water regulator and the government. The government makes sympathetic noises but seems inclined to leave matters to the courts - which can only impose small fines if, indeed, they find against Thames Water - and has so far ducked the challenge of specifying levels of odour pollution. I hope, in this debate, to make Ministers realise that this issue won't go away - and could get worse with growing discharges adding to the volumes of sewage being dealt with".