The government has announced that its target to reduce storm overflows will be enshrined in law.

The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, published in August 2022, set out stringent targets to protect people and the environment, backed up by up to £56 billion capital investment – the largest infrastructure programme in water company history.

The government has now announced that it will enshrine the Plan further in law through the Environment Act 2021. It will make its costed and credible target to reduce storm overflows legally binding, in line with the Plan.

This will be backed by existing separate interim milestones for bathing waters and high priority nature sites.

The targets in the Plan provide an achievable, realistic route to tackling sewage and delivering the improvements customers expect without disproportionately impacting consumer bills. Alongside the plan, the government published a detailed economic assessment.

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The announcement builds on:

• The requirement for all storm overflows to be fitted with monitors by the end of 2023. 91% currently have them fitted, up from only 7% in 2010. It is as a result of this monitoring that the government is able to see the extent of what is happening and take action to address it.

• The recent Plan for Water – the government's five year strategy on water – which includes bringing forward £1.6 billion investment, with £1.1bn specifically on storm overflows

• Proposals for unlimited penalties to be imposed on water companies that break the rules. More than £142 million has already been levied in fines since 2015. As set out earlier this year, money from those fines and penalties will also now be channelled back into the environment.

• The commission from the Secretary of State to ask water companies to provide action plans on every storm overflow by this summer.

• The legally binding targets that already exist through the Environment Act 2021 to cut 80% of total phosphorus pollution from sewage treatment plants by 2038.

Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said: "I have been unequivocal on this issue. Water companies need to clean up their act – and they need to cover the costs.

"But the hard truth is that however much we all want to see this fixed immediately, the scale and complexity means there is no way that we can stop pollution overnight. To suggest otherwise is dishonest.

"I am using the full force of my powers to make sure that we stop the damage caused by storm overflows as quickly as possible. That includes our plans today to put our costed and credible target on a new legal footing."

The Plan for Water – published on 04 April – set out further detail on how the government is tackling every source of pollution – not just storm overflows, but also agriculture, plastics, road run-off and chemicals.