I am proud of how much the people in our area care about protecting our environment, defeating climate change, leading the world in the ‘Green Revolution’ and setting out future measures for sustainable living and nature's recovery. This statement relates to environmental matters including energy bills & energy efficient homes, water pollution and flooding.
The Conservative Party has long recognised the importance of climate action and I welcome that the UK was the first G7 country to legislate to achieve net zero by 2050 and is decarbonising faster than any G20 country.
Domestic renewable energy production has been bolstered through the Energy Security Strategy. This sets out plans to accelerate the deployment of wind, new nuclear, solar and hydrogen, while supporting the production of domestic oil and gas in the nearer term – which could see 95 per cent of electricity being low carbon by 2030. New ambitions include producing up to 50GW of offshore wind by 2030 – more than enough to power every home in the UK. There are more details on my thoughts regarding energy sources on my website here: Mims Davies GE2024 - Statement regarding Energy Sources including Coal, Gas, Oil and Fracking
The Environment Act placed environmental ambition and accountability at the heart of Government with new legislative measures to address the biggest environmental priorities of our age, ensuring we can deliver on the commitment to leave the natural world in a better condition than we found it. It will ensure this, and future governments, are held to account if they fail to uphold their environmental duties. These will include meeting net-zero by 2050, as well as wider long-term legally binding targets on biodiversity, air quality, water, and resource and waste efficiency which will be established under the Bill. You can read more here: World-leading Environment Act becomes law - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Although there is undoubtedly much work still to do, good progress has been made in reducing energy bills and ensuring that homes are well-insulated with the number of homes that are well-insulated having increased from 14 per cent in 2010 to 50 per cent now. There are a number of schemes available to help with insulation measures. Under Energy Company Obligation, Great British Insulation Scheme, Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Green Homes Local Authority Delivery and Home Upgrade Grant, around 97,100 insulation measures were introduced in domestic properties between 1 December 2022 and 30 November 2023. In addition, I understand that the Government has estimated that over 300,000 homes will be supported through the Great British Insultation Scheme from April 2022 to March 2026, with £1 billion of funding available across that period.
With the announcement of a new price cap from Ofgem, from July 2024 the average bill has dropped by a further £122 since the April-June cap to £360 for those on direct debit. Alongside this the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has also introduced new measures to help families save on energy costs and access cheaper deals. This includes examining how standard energy deals should work to pass on the cheapest electricity costs, as well as a new scheme to help customers repair or replace smart meter in-home displays after the one-year warranty. These displays provide an important service in helping families, including older and vulnerable people, keep track of their energy use. Extending support will help customers continue to make the most of the savings smart meters can offer as the price cap falls and competitive deals return to the market.
I fully appreciate the importance of our rivers and am delighted there is now 80 per cent less phosphorus and 85 per cent less ammonia in our rivers compared to 1990 when water was privatised and our bathing waters continue to improve, with 93 per cent classified as good or excellent in 2022 compared to 76 per cent in 2010. The Government’s Plan for Water, published in April 2023, set out more investment, stronger regulation, and tougher enforcement to tackle every source of pollution. The volume of sewage and other pollution still being discharged into our waters is completely unacceptable and I will continue to call our water companies to account on this.
To protect our water, we have increased the monitoring of storm overflows in England to 100 percent – more than any other nation in the UK. When Labour left office in 2010 only 7 per cent of overflows were monitored. We are cracking down on companies that pollute our rivers, including by introducing unlimited penalties for environmental breaches and giving regulators more powers to fine water companies. We are also requiring Ofwat to incentivise water companies to invest to reduce the use of storm overflows. Between 2020 and 2025, water companies will invest £7.1 billion for environmental improvements in England, as well as £56 billion through the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan over 25 years.
Our plan to crack down on water pollution has led to 59 successful prosecutions against water companies that pollute illegally, securing fines of over £150 million which will be reinvested into our water. We are also banning bonuses for bosses of water companies that have committed criminal breaches, with the ban applying to all executive board members and Chief Executives, alongside introducing new powers for Ofwat to clamp down on excessive dividends when environmental performance has been poor, through new powers made possible through the Environment Act.
Despite improvement in England, under Labour in Wales, there were 50 per cent more spills on average from each storm overflow than in England. The average number of spills per overflow was 33 in England–but 54.9 in Wales, which saw 115,525 discharges in total and untreated sewage discharged for a total of 1,002,324 hours through storm overflows (Environment Agency publishes storm overflow spill data for 2023).
Flooding concerns exist due to a combination of the changing climate, with more extreme weather experienced, alongside the impact in some areas of development. It is therefore positive that since 2010 there has been substantial Government investment to better protect properties and farmland. In 2020, a doubling of capital funding into flood defences in England was announced to a record £5.6 billion over 2021-2027. This will work alongside the Flood Recovery Framework and Farming Recovery Fund directly supporting flood affected communities, businesses and farmers. Unfortunately Planning Authorities with no District Plans are vulnerable to hostile planning applications. So whilst developments should mitigate for flooding concerns a changing climate challenges this. It is vital Planning Authorities have up to date and robust District plans to offer protection against unwanted development.
I am proud of our track record for bringing forward these vital environmental schemes and should I be elected as the MP for the East Grinstead & Uckfield constituency I will continue to support constituents to raise the profile of their importance with the new Government.
