Portsmouth MP demands to know how much of Southern Water's £90m fine for leaking sewage has been paid

Stephen Morgan, Portsmouth South MP, has written to bosses at the organisation about his concerns with Southern Water’s woeful environmental record.

The Labour MP has also demanded answers on the record £90m fine Southern Water was handed last year for 6,971 unpermitted sewage discharges in coastal waters between 2010 and 2015.

Mr Morgan’s letter comes as a string of pollution warnings were issued for dozens of beaches in England and Wales, after untreated sewage was discharged into the sea around the coast.

Hugo Tagholm, chief executive of charity Surfers Against Sewage, which runs the service that issued the warnings, said last week: ‘Our rivers and beaches are once again being treated as open sewers. Years of underinvestment is now in plain sight.’

In his letter to the Environment Agency (EA), shadow schools minister Mr Morgan questioned what enforcement action the organisation had taken.

And he demanded to know how much of the fine had so far been paid by Southern Water and for a timeline of when the whole amount will be paid by.

‘Time and again Southern Water has been allowed to pollute Portsmouth’s precious local environment and bathing waters, with retrospective fines and current laws clearly not

robust enough to ensure water and sewage companies meet their obligations, which I raised concerns about with ministers,’ Mr Morgan wrote.

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‘Meanwhile, as we continue to see shocking images of raw sewage being pumped into beaches along the south coast of England and elsewhere, my constituents continue to

deal with the consequences of Southern Water’s failures and many are keen to understand the current situation with the £90m fine it was ordered to pay last year.’

Last month, the EA’s 2021 report of water sewage companies’ environmental performance awarded Southern Water a one-star rating – the lowest level possible – and ranked it as the worst performing company for sewage pollution incidents per 10,000km of sewer, at 94.

In a statement to The News, Mr Morgan said: ‘Our country is facing a dirty water emergency and the government and water companies have failed to face up to the problem.’