Yes, there have been victories against sewage pollution – but 2025 is a fight to keep Labour honest

We stand on the brink of the biggest shake up of the water industry since privatisation in the 90s. Yes, this is a pivotal moment in our decades long campaign to End Sewage Pollution and we intend to grab it with both hands. After all, who doesn’t want to see the back of the water industry fat cats?

We’ve been blown away by the energy driving the campaign to protect our waters this year – a true groundswell powered by communities up and down the UK. Thousands of us marched in blue through the streets of London, paddled out in protest at our beaches, rivers and lakes (when the water quality allowed) and now stand shoulder to shoulder united by a simple goal: clean waters. We are fed up with companies who are happy to take the paydays but do everything to avoid upholding their end of the bargain. It’s time to bring this shitshow to an end.

This year, we were always going to come out fighting. The general election, combined with water companies setting out their five-year investment plans, offered up huge opportunities for our movement to secure lasting change. Because we’re powered by a simple truth: the water industry is broken and anything less than radical reform is simply papering over the cracks.

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Since privatisation, these companies have handed over more than £85billion to shareholders while neglecting their environmental obligations, telling the press sob stories about Victorian infrastructure, when they’ve had ample time, and decades of public money, to fix the foundations. The bare facts are shocking: 584,001 sewage dumps across the UK last year alone. Every single private water company in England and Wales is under criminal investigation by the Environment Agency. And water-users across the country continue to pay the price for this rampant industry profiteering: from surfs and swims missed, to life-changing sicknesses, and story after story of the life and lifeblood of local communities lost to the scourge of sewage pollution.

And we’re already seeing the fruits of our labour. The new government’s first legislative programme, announced in the King’s Speech, included a bill intended to clean up the water industry, with the promise of further, more far-reaching, legislation to come.

The Water (Special Measures) Bill the government has introduced, is welcome but flawed. We can’t allow legislation to pass that will mean the public foot the bill for failing water companies and we can’t stand by as the industry regulator prioritises profit over environmental protections. We’re galvanising the movement, yet again, to take action and ensure our elected representatives, and our government, hears our demands.

So, 2024 was the crest of a wave but 2025 is just as crucial – it’s about making sure this tide of action is successful in sweeping away the deadwood of the failing water industry and tackling sewage pollution.

And our campaigning has cracked the window for change open. Our core election demand was a root and branch review of the water industry which would set us on the path to radical reform – and we have obtained that commitment from government.

The Independent Water Commission, delivering the review, will report back in 2025 with recommendations on how to tackle systemic problems in the sector and these will form the basis of a second Water Bill. We’re already deep in the detail, calling out any indication of weakening government ambition. Because we know the water lobby will be arguing hard against any change from the status quo – after all they have locked themselves into a pretty sweet deal – but we will be there every step of the way, making sure that the voices of customers, communities and our wild waters are heard in the process.

In 2025 the fight continues, fuelled by a genuine hope for a better future. We will be keeping our watchful eye on the review of the water sector, on this Labour government, and on the water industry itself. Because this is a fight for the blue arteries of the UK, for the seas and beaches that we, as an island nature, treasure so much. And the profiteering polluters must not win.

Dani Jordan is director of campaigns and communities at Surfers Against Sewage, a registered charity. You can support their fight against the polluters by signing up as a member, for as little as a cup of coffee a month.

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