Dirty Business (2026) s01e03 Episode Script

1
This programme contains
strong language from the start
I'm not sure if I'm going to go in.
Really? Yeah.
You'll be fine.
It'll be cold. Fear of drowning.
Oh, maybe. You try it for a bit.
I'll go first.
Looking good. Looking rough.
Scaredy-cat.
I'm not sure. Don't fancy it?
Reuben!
Reu!
No prints, nothing taken
or disturbed.
No. Unfortunately,
the the blood sample
wasn't big enough
for the lab to get a full DNA read.
It's disappointing.
Wow.
I really thought there was enough
for a full sample.
Apparently not.
What about the glove mark?
Not enough resolution
for them to do anything with.
You know, I
took photos of the house right
after the break-in. And nothing was
touched?
No.
Or they put everything back
in its place,
which is what you would do if you
were installing a listening device.
I've applied
for warrants to do exactly that.
You were a copper?
Serious crime squad,
covert surveillance unit,
counter corruption.
I'm innocent.
Well, I mean, um
as you know, we've done
a couple of sweeps.
Er, nothing.
No. Me neither. So, um, you know,
there's not much more we can do.
OK.
HE PANTS
HE GROANS AND BREATHES HEAVILY
PHONE VIBRATES
PHONE RINGS
But you've worked in surveillance,
haven't you, for years?
So you're telling me you can't
actually see
if they've got a new computer
or not?
No.
I've done what I can to check,
but you just can't tell now.
You see,
there's this incognito spyware -
runs a keylogger in the background,
which means they can
record every key you press,
every mouse click,
they can see the emails you write,
your messages,
your passwords, etc - everything.
But they build it
so you don't know it's there.
What do the What did the police
say? Well, an officer came out.
He took a sample of the blood.
There was some blood on
the handle downstairs,
and he thought he could see
a disposable glove mark in it,
which means that whoever
did it wants
to make sure they're untraceable.
He did think they could find a DNA
result.
And then nothing. Nothing happens.
What do you think this is?
Anything they can
find to discredit us.
Something that would look good on
the cover of the Daily Mail,
for example. I mean,
I can't think
of anything that, you know, I mean
Well, you know what it is.
What's that?
It's the free jazz.
If that gets out,
we're fucked. Oh, fuck off!
But who would want to discredit us? I
don't know.
It could be a burglar
who just got scared and legged it.
Yeah, well. Or he could have just
seen Charla's Hawaiian cushions.
Don't say that in front of Charla.
I'm not going to do that.
I want to hang on to my balls.
You know, the other day
when this happened,
the first thing I did was pick
up the phone to you.
Yeah. No, I saw that.
I did see it. Yeah.
You probably saw it. I hung up just
to Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I just think that what we need now
is We need, um
We need a whistleblower, don't we?
And we need someone from inside
the agency And high up.
From the top. Yeah.
Uh, Eileen said
that we must be making a difference.
Did she? Yeah. She did.
So come on, let's, um That's the
point, isn't it? Yeah, we are.
There's no point doing this
unless we make a difference.
No, let's keep going.
Let's keep going.
And let's find that
fucking whistleblower. Right?
"June 2019. Sir James Bevan,
Environment Agency.
"Dear Sir James,
I'm writing to your office,
"as I'm sure you will know
where to direct the question."
"October 2019. Dear Sir James,
"I wrote to you
to raise concerns about
"a serious integrity issue involving
the agency."
"Dear Sir James,
"34 days have now passed
since I sent you evidence.
"I've given
up expecting a reply from you."
TYPING "Dear Ashley,
"I am in receipt of your email to
Sir James.
"Would you mind coming to our
office and would the 19th suit?"
Is Sir James not coming?
I'm afraid not.
No. Sir James wouldn't routinely
attend meetings
at this kind of level.
I'd hoped he'd be here.
He's time poor. Yeah.
He's aware of your work.
Well, er, well,
we're trying to find out,
what you're going to do about
the illegal sewage overflow,
at Bourton.
The combined storm overflow.
Yeah.
The combined storm overflow
at Bourton
has shown no detectable effects on
the water quality.
The water quality is stable
and not deteriorating.
I mean, our data shows very clearly
that we have the best quality water
since the Industrial Revolution.
The water's turned brown. Yeah.
It's turned so brown
that when it joins
the Thames at Newbridge,
it makes the Thames look like
a Swiss mountain stream.
Uh, the the water is brown
in places,
but that's a natural phenomenon.
It's caused by geological fault.
A geological fault?
Yeah. Yeah. Sorry.
A geological fault is millions
of years old.
Mm. We remember
when the water was clear.
No-one remembers the good old days
before the geological fault.
In the last 12 months
since we installed sensors,
there's been no evidence
of pollution.
That's because you've installed
the monitors upstream from
the sewage pipes.
Now, is that incompetence
or an attempt to cover up a scandal?
No, no.
The agency would never position
a monitor to achieve a particular
reading.
We are working extremely hard
to transform the environment.
We've improved
and protected something like,
I think it's 15,000km of river.
I'm sorry,
but you've had 92 complaints from
the general
public about sewage pollution,
and that's just the Windrush.
I've actually got the
breakdown here.
It's, er Yeah, yeah.
Er
In Er Well,
in 36 of those cases, there was no
offence,
and in 39 there
was insufficient evidence.
And in six we were unable
to identify the offender.
Oh, what do you mean,
you couldn't identify the offenders?
Why can't you identify
the offenders?
There's seven sewage works along
the Windrush.
They're all run by Thames Water.
So I mean,
you say you've got insufficient
evidence,
but we keep giving you the evidence.
All we ever do is give you
the evidence.
And all we get back is "It's
under investigation."
And then nothing, nothing,
nothing ever happens.
In exceptional circumstances,
for example,
after heavy rain, the sewage systems
are allowed to overflow.
No. No, you see, that's not
That's not the law.
The law is that in all normal
climatic conditions,
including heavy rainfall,
the water companies have to treat
the sewage.
They have to make it safe
before they put it back into
the river.
The law is a grey area.
No, no, it's not a grey area.
With respect, it's the
law. Sorry Can I?
Sorry.
Thames had their own data -
it shows they stopped
treating sewage
at Northleach
for more than three months.
Now, they told us
that their sensors had broken down,
but we think they're lying.
They're ly They're lying?
So why would they do that?
Why would they lie to you?
LIFT DINGS
Doors closing.
We're Potemkin regulators.
Sorry?
The regulation isn't real.
The government want us to look like
a regulator,
but they won't let us do our job.
OK.
When Cameron and Truss gutted
the agency,
we went from regulating the industry
to doing its bidding.
Do you think we could
take your number?
Look, just keep going.
This is going to be the first
government in modern history that,
at the end of its parliamentary
term,
has less regulation
in place than there was at
the beginning.
We've now identified
those 3,000 regulations
that we're going to scrap.
Let's reduce the amount and the
burden of regulation
Strangled by red tape
Cut back the health and safety,
monster
Cut guidance by 80%,
and reduce farm inspections
by 34,000 every year.
Regulations will go.
None of my ministers could introduce
a regulation
unless they abolished one at
the same time.
Massively reduce the
number of rules,
laws and regulations
that frankly treat
all of you like idiots.
So really, it's about stripping out
as much unnecessary regulation
as possible
and taking responsibility
for climate change and saying,
"What more can we do to get us
to net zero?"
As you know,
this is a passion project
for Sir James,
who feels that we can bring our car
usage down by 70%.
Yeah.
It's Yeah. So from next month,
we're going to be taking the bold
decision to cut back
decisively on our car leases.
Yeah. Come on. Sorry.
Just, like, to clarify,
what, you're going to get rid of our
cars?
So it's about reducing
the agency's carbon footprint.
Just getting that Yeah.
Go ahead, Hanna. The cars
that we drive to the inspections in?
Right. Yeah. So So self
monitoring
and a more desk-based regulation
is really It's really
helping us move
the needle on climate change.
But the the remaining inspections?
Well, yeah.
How do we get to those without a
car? Yeah.
That's a great question.
It's a really great question.
Um, we'll take that forward to the
next discussion meeting.
Thanks, Hanna.
Yeah, lovely. Great. Thanks, everyone.
Not easy news to break,
is it? Surprise, surprise - Debbie's
got something to say.
I know, but my car
Everyone's driving cars. We're
the Environment Agency.
Absolutely. You should keep your
What's wrong with the train?
I'll keep mine, I think. So, yeah.
Yeah.
Mm. Coffee? How do I get a coffee?
Does anybody know
what we're looking at?
Anybody?
OK, could you tell me
what the reactants are?
So, if you move your
head even slightly,
the vertigo gets more intense. Yeah.
And the attacks are happening maybe
twice a week?
About that, yeah.
The good news is
that you don't have cancer.
We actually think it's Meniere's.
It's a disease of the inner ear.
The main symptom
is acute vertigo episodes,
vomiting, tinnitus.
It's a pretty neat fit
with your presentation.
STUDENTS MUTTER
They were dumping sewage
in the water the last time
before I got sick.
Right. You know that from?
The Surfers Against Sewage app.
OK.
And might that be?
The causes are unclear.
It's post-viral. This often starts
with an ear infection
in that they're common in surfers.
Yeah. Every surfer I know.
HE RETCHES Oh, my God!
This is a chronic condition.
I'm afraid there's no cure.
Should we move the table away?
Just hold his back.
So by ending on-site
Inspections into
categories three and four,
no or low-impact pollution events,
and doubling down on the more
serious
category one and two incidents,
we think we can turn ourselves
into a more effective fighting unit.
Yeah. So from today we are
ending on-site inspections
for cats three and four.
Any questions?
Well, yeah. Um
A category three incident can be
two kilometres of sewage.
Mm-hm.
We want you to not inspect,
to not spend time on these
incidents.
Except that since the water
companies have been self-reporting,
they almost always only
report category threes and fours.
So they're not actually reporting
the serious incident.
And so if the water
companies are only reporting
Threes and fours.
Threes and fours,
and we're no longer allowed
to investigate
So what exactly are we going
to be doing? Wha?
I've told the government you get
the regulation you pay for.
We no longer have the money to go on
inspecting
low-grade pollution events.
We need you to shut down these
reports as unsubstantiated,
or to silently pass them
and to not report them
as pollution incidents.
Is that clear?
Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, everyone.
Get on with your day.
Yeah.
I'll just
The utter fuck? Fucking wankers!
How are you gonna get to fucking
work?
Fuck knows.
Horseback.
SHE CHUCKLES
What time did he call you?
10:30 last night.
He said you couldn't miss it.
Oh, my God, look at it.
I'll get some shots and we'll call
the agency on the way back.
TYPES ON KEYBOARD
TYPES ON KEYBOARD
Debbie Mm?
Are you driving in to work
tomorrow?
Yeah, obviously.
How else would I get in?
Well, can I borrow
your car at lunchtime?
What for?
Someone keeps calling
up and complaining
about the same incident.
It's near the bridge at Hawk Rise,
so I'm gonna go and take a look.
Shh! OK.
Bit freelance investigation?
Bit of freelance.
And also, it needs to be off the
books,
and I need you to promise me not
to tell Sophie.
Not gonna tell Sophie.
You're not going to tell Sophie?
Obviously no, I don't tell Sophie
anything.
TENSE MUSIC PLAYS
TENSE MUSIC BUILDS
Hi. Hi. Is that? Is that Justine?
Hi, Justine. Um, it's Hanna
from the Environment Agency.
Listen, it's about the, um
the pollution event at Hawk Rise.
Um
it came through the system
at a duration of 1.34 hours.
And I'm here now,
and it's still going.
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm here now. Yeah.
The CSO is still discharging
untreated sewage.
I mean, there's a section of the
river that is covered over
with dried sewage.
I mean, there's dead fish.
You can see them from the footpath.
I mean, you're going to get
more complaints.
You need to sort this.
Can you prepare
and cook a simple meal unaided?
Yeah, but not
when I'm having an attack.
Then I can't do anything.
I can't I can't move.
Can you eat and drink unaided?
Yeah, but again,
not when I'm having an attack.
And I've been getting the attacks
every few days
for the past six months.
But if you're not having one of
your attacks,
can you eat and drink unaided?
Yeah, but
Yes or no is fine.
Yes.
Can you dress and undress unaided?
It's the same answer.
Moving on to the mobility
section of this assessment,
can you plan
and follow a journey unaided?
Yeah, but not
when I'm having an attack.
Stand and move for 200m?
Not when I'm having an attack.
You know, can you move around,
walk for 200m?
Of course I can, but not
when I'm having an attack.
OK. Thank you, Mr Santer.
Your total score for the daily
living part of the assessment is
zero points.
Your total score for the mobility
section is zero points.
When you're not having an attack
No, no, no.
You're able to do all the tasks
I asked you about.
That's the thing with my condition
You can wash your face
is that sometimes
you can I can do these things
and other times I can't.
And when I can't, I can't do
anything.
I can't award you Personal
Independence Payment. No, but
I don't know what to do.
If you need further guidance
about how to appeal, you can use
the webchat to get some help.
If you cannot access the webchat,
you can contact the Benefits
Appeal helpline
on 0300160
VOICE FADES
Hanna Oh, shit. Sorry. Sorry,
didn't mean to scare you.
Um, do you have a second?
Can I have a word?
Of course. Yeah? OK,
so I've just I just got off
the phone to Justine Wright
Phillips at the water company.
Yeah. She said you called her.
Yeah I Yeah I did.
OK. She said you called her from
the site.
Well, I saw
that it had been logged on
the system for the fifth time,
and people kept calling up,
complaining, and nobody
was doing anything about it.
But we don't have the revenue
to be investigating category
threes.
It's not a category three, Sophie.
The river is dried over
with excrement.
You can see it from
So that's what I wanted to talk
to you about.
So Justine says
that the dispersal rate
in that area is really high.
Is it? Yeah. But She says
She says there's like a strong
current and a high dispersal.
The overflow pipe has been
discharging for over 36 hours
and it is still going All right.
Untreated That is the water
company's responsibility
to report to us. You know this.
OK. And Justine says
that actually really,
the, um Because of the high
dispersal rate,
that it should come
down to a category four.
Be a category four? Yes.
Right. Mm-hm.
So no impact on the environment?
No action needed?
Yes.
Mm-hm.
Oh, you want me to change it on
the system.
Would you, could you?
Yeah. OK. Thanks so much.
Thank you.
That's great. Lovely.
Wow.
So you see how well we're doing?
Yeah, of course.
You joking?
I'm not joking.
You know Sroic?
No. What's that?
Strategic review of incident
charges, yeah?
It's like what we charge the clients
for permits
Sorry, we don't have clients, Cheryl,
we're an environment agency.
Yes. OK, yeah.
Sorry, yes, we don't have clients,
but
Sir James has put the prices up.
Yeah?
And I'm talking like up-up, big
time.
What, he's charging the water
companies more?
Yep.
Well, they must
Surely, they've gone down to the
government, like, lobbying them,
going mad,
getting the charges taken down.
No. Not a peep.
Not a peep?
Sorry, that makes no sense.
They're just paying it.
We've basically had such a high
revenue spike, yeah?
That we are on our way to becoming
a client-funded regulator.
Sorry. Hold on one minute.
This is going a bit
So you're saying
that the water companies are
funding the Environment Agency?
Wow. That's what you're really?
It's happening.
You see the you see the issues there?
You can't be serious.
A client-funded regulator.
Amazing isn't it?
How can that even be a thing?
It's a thing. Well, hold on,
because literally the other day,
Sir James said that you get
the regulation that you pay for.
Yeah. That we haven't got
the money to do the investigations
that we used to do.
Nobody's paying for them.
OK. That's your area, isn't it?
I mean, all I know is that we have
got more cash than we've ever
had before.
Just making conversation.
I've got the job.
Postman? Mm-hm.
No! Yeah. Did you?
- Yeah.
- Oh! HE LAUGHS
Yeah, really good timing.
Uh-huh?
Because I did
two pregnancy tests this morning.
What? And, yeah. I'm pregnant.
What? Yeah. Pregnant.
No.
Yeah!
I sort of just had a funny
feeling and then
Yeah. Did one test - two lines.
And then I did another test
and it said two lines as well,
and I was like
fuck!
SHE LAUGHS
I'm Susan Davy.
I am the CEO of Southwest Water.
Basically, the wet weather events
Storm overflow
put a strain on our Victorian
networks,
And unfortunately, we have
a Victorian sewage system which
we have inherited.
And that means things do go wrong.
Just say, "Victorian sewage
network."
12%.
12%? What's 12%?
12% of the sewage system is
Victorian.
What do they tell you?
That the whole of the system
was Victorian,
so that meant that the investment
would be so high
that it'd be impossible
to actually fix it all.
Bollocks! Shall I tell you
what stopped it?
When privatisation came in,
they just stopped spending.
After the war they kept upgrading,
then after privatisation came in,
they just stopped.
Not just Thames, all of them.
6% new plants is privatisation.
6%? 6%.
Is that all? You know, it would be
good
if we could maybe come
and visit one of the works.
I don't know about that.
Well, I'll have to see,
lads, honestly, because
even just doing this,
I feel a bit nervous.
Fucking London Stadium,
that's not a proper stadium.
Fucking massive.
Upton Park - now, that was a proper
stadium, mate.
London Stadium's too big,
you need fucking binoculars,
you know what I mean?
Yeah.
Sorry, Pete, did you want to see an
EDM?
Oh, yes. Yes, that's the one,
well remembered.
So this is an event duration
monitor.
Now, we fitted one of these on every
sewage pipe in England.
In 2012, right,
the coalition government,
they ordered all the water
companies to record
how much time they spend
dumping raw sewage.
These little units,
they measure how much poo goes
into the river by hours.
Management have been dragging
their feet
for eight years now,
CAMERA CLICKS but we're
finally getting most of it in now.
And the agency,
they've got to publish the numbers?
They have to by law.
They're not going to like it
but tough shit.
EDMs.
Yes. Uh
So, uh, we are finalising plans
for the statutory publication of
the EDM numbers.
As you know, there have been some
technical delays,
but it looks
like they're almost ready.
And, uh, they're going to come
as a bit of a shock.
Uh, the data's going to show
that the water
companies discharged raw sewage
400,000 times in 2020.
That's 1,100 times a day
for a total of 3.1 million hours.
It is a bit of a shocker.
Can I just say that, um
Since operator self-monitoring,
we've had to rely on the water
companies to report back to us.
Yeah, I think that the key here is
that this doesn't get framed
as a failure of regulation.
That is That is
That would be quite wrong.
And and I think managing comms on
this is going to be key.
And we are working actively with
the water companies to
to bear down on the problem.
Yeah.
And But that's 1,100
criminal offences a day.
Well, that's actually
That's debatable
because that depends on
the terms of the permit
and the circumstances
around each spill.
Yeah, and we know the legislation
permits discharging
after heavy rainfall and
No. No, it doesn't.
Sorry, Hanna.
The law doesn't say that you can just
dump sewage after heavy rain.
It says that in all normal climatic
and seasonal circumstances,
the water companies have to treat
the sewage,
not just dump it.
But it's not the agency's job
to adjudicate legal matters.
I mean, this is actually a matter
for the courts.
No, no, no, this is our job.
It's our job to enforce the law.
Yeah.
That's what we're here to do.
Well
Can you, um Yeah.
Did you want to?
No, no, you, you finish off here,
- Sophie.
- Thank you.
HE CLEARS THROA
So we've identified the problem,
and now we work on the problem,
which is reframing
and owning the narrative.
Yeah, we don't want this
to get misconstrued
as some sort of failure on our
part, because it just isn't.
Thanks, guys. Yeah, thanks.
Thanks so much. Thanks.
Cool. Lovely. Thanks.
Thanks so much.
By the way, um
so I've heard you're going
to give evidence in Parliament.
Yes, yes.
Amazing.
Yeah, thinking about it.
What does that mean,
"Thinking about it"?
He's, uh, he's nervous.
Not like that, I'm not nervous.
He's nervous.
No, it's not that I'm nervous.
I want to do it, it's just
It's difficult.
Pete Don't worry about him.
Yeah. We're counting on you.
We are really counting on you.
And you can explain it
in the scientific way.
You're going to come across
brilliantly.
They're going to believe you, mate.
Well, it
It's not really as simple as that.
I mean The boys from Mogden call
me earlier, right?
And they told me that they dumped
2 billion litres
of sewage in the Thames over two
days.
Environment Agency haven't got
a Scooby.
Did they send you the data?
I've got the data, yeah.
Right. Can you send that to us?
I will send it to you.
We're not going to let you down.
OK.
Thanks, Ash. Please. You can do
this. Come on, Pete.
He'll be fine. It's all right.
You're a legend, mate. Come on.
We now have the lowest
number of serious pollution
incidents from water companies
that we have yet recorded.
More water companies are now at
the highest level of performance,
what we call four-star performance.
I mean, we now have the lowest
number of serious pollution
incidents from water companies
that we have yet recorded.
TENSE MUSIC PLAYS
COMPUTER BEEPS
I'm an environment officer at
the Agency.
I investigate sewage pollution.
When I first joined, it wasn't
a job to get rich on.
You know, I could see I
was making a difference.
You know,
corporations want to make money.
We make sure that they don't
poison the rivers doing it.
We could investigate, prosecute,
whatever it took.
But then they told the companies
that they could
regulate themselves.
That's operator self-monitoring?
Exactly.
Then came the Cameron cuts,
then the Truss cuts.
They laid off investigators,
slashed prosecutions.
I mean, they even took our cars off
of us
so we couldn't visit
pollution sites.
So all these cuts meant you
couldn't do your job properly.
That's not it.
In 2021, Sir James hiked the prices
the water companies paid
for their permits.
It was called charge funded
regulation.
We get 96 million from
the Government.
We are now pulling
in 411 million from charges.
All these cuts,
they're just a smokescreen.
We're swimming in cash.
SHE SIGHS
I am doing this because I know
that it is wrong
and that it has ruined
my whole working life.
Good luck.
Right.
Fucking hell.
What should we do?
Well, first we read them
and then I think we should call
some journalists.
The Environment Agency
has refused to comment on
whether agency directors currently
hold shares in UK water companies.
The agency claimed it would
break data protection laws
if it disclosed the information.
Environment Agency chiefs
secretly held
a series of private dinners
with water company bosses at
the Royal Automobile Club
in central London.
Documents released under the
Freedom of Information Act
showed the meetings were held
to discuss how
to quell public anger
over sewage spills.
As the sewage scandal deepens,
Environment agency
CEO Sir James Bevan
has been called to give evidence
to a parliamentary committee.
Well, we need to talk about
what we say in public
and the responsibilities we have.
You have a duty
not to openly criticise
or discredit the organisation
in the media or on social media.
Or to disclose confidential
information to anyone not
authorised to receive it!
If your comments inside
or outside work impact on
the agency's reputation by
making derogatory comments about
the organisation or your managers,
or you make comments that bring
the organisation into disrepute,
you may be subject
to disciplinary action.
And in more serious cases, dismissal.
Thank you.
PETER WHISPERS,
REHEARSING TO HIMSELF
over the last
Over the last ten years
I don't think I want to do this.
You'll be fine.
You need the toilet?
I'm all right,
I don't need the bloody toilet.
Do you want a pie?
What does that mean?
Well, um, my garden is an island
which the Windrush wraps around.
I've watched it closely for 18 years
and I watched the water turn brown.
I led a team of scientists using
a machine-learning analysis
..of two sewage treatment
works run by Thames Water.
One of those works,
the Environment Agency,
said over ten years that only two
pollution incidents
had been reported.
Our machine-learning analysis
showed hundreds of illegal spills.
More than 300 lasted 24 hours,
and some longer than ten days
and some for a month.
Have you shown this evidence to
the Environment Agency?
Well, yeah,
I've shown the evidence many times.
What usually happens is that they,
they say that They show a sign of
interest but then nothing happens.
We work very closely with
Professor Hammond of
Windrush Against Sewage Pollution.
We have a regular and
very fruitful dialogue with him.
You've worked closely with
Professor Hammond?
He and Ashley Smith sent
you at least 13 emails detailing
evidence of illegal sewage dumping.
He published five evidenced reports
documenting water company
criminality,
all of which were sent to you
or your senior colleagues.
They invited you to come
and look at the river in 2019,
and the following year,
sent you an email with the heading
Environment Agency Complicit
in Lawbreaking.
They never heard back.
You never once replied
in five years.
How did you manage to work
so closely with Professor Hammond
when you never once spoke to him?
At the Thames Water Mogden treatment
works, there was a spill
of 240 Olympic swimming pools of
sewage in a single day.
The existing monitoring failed
to pick that up.
Now, why was that?
There will always be times
when something happens,
usually accidentally.
If we find that a water
company has breached its permit,
we will take appropriate action.
Does appropriate action include
prosecuting water company
executives?
Prosecution is a very high bar,
but where we think that's
appropriate,
we wouldn't hesitate.
Did you prosecute in this case?
No.
Have you ever prosecuted
any water company executives?
No, but if we thought the evidence
warranted it,
we wouldn't hesitate.
Last year, you told this committee
that you became aware
of sewage dumping in May 2021? Yes.
But three weeks after that, you told
the committee that
the water companies were improving
and that more of them were getting
four out of four stars.
Why were you telling the committee
that the water companies
were doing a four-star job?
Well, you've quoted
everything I said.
I think I I stand
by everything I said.
I think you'll find
them mutually consistent.
The agency's job is to make sure
the water companies obey
the criminal law,
but it doesn't do it, and the water
companies do whatever they want.
The alleged crimes of their
directors are never prosecuted.
They've built criminality into
their business models
because pollution
is highly profitable
and repeat offending has
no consequences.
Therefore, in the light
of the remarkable absence
of any counter-corruption measures,
we demand an investigation into
the Environment Agency.
The key test for me on regulation
Less regulation.
Is it something that enables the
builders, not the blockers?
Cut guidance by 80%.
We've also got to look
at regulation
Regulations will go.
And where it is needlessly holding
back the investment.
Reduce the amount
and the burden of regulation.
Rip up the bureaucracy that
blocks investment.
Northumbrian water recorded 30.1
spills per overflow over
the course of 2023,
280,000 hours and change in total.
The chief executive Heidi Mottram
received a bonus of £234,000
that year.
Why did you take football tickets
from the parent company?
Well, I didn't. OK.
CK Hutchison Holdings owns 75%
of Cheung Kong Infrastructure
Holdings,
the owner of Northumbrian Water,
and you declared £2,000
in football tickets and hospitality.
Well, on that occasion, there was
nobody from a water company
that was involved in offering those
tickets, there was nobody
from a water company at that event.
The parent company did.
Well, I wouldn't have known that,
they weren't present
Why didn't you know?
You should have known that.
You said that these sort
of people should potentially be
in the dock if they have been found
to break the rules.
You took £2,000 in tickets and
hospitality for a football match
from bosses linked to that company
that polluted that water.
Why should people in Northumbria
think that you're fit for your job?
Well, I certainly wouldn't
have known that,
and judge me by what I do. Why not?
Judge me by what I do.
That IS what you did.
Environment Minister
Steve Reid is pursuing
legal action against a group of
anglers trying to restore
the ecosystem of their local river,
on the grounds that cleaning
up individual rivers
is "administratively unworkable".
Concerns have been raised about the
number of leading Labour figures
with links to lobbying firms working
for water companies.
Among the invited guests at
the Government's
International Investment Summit
was Macquarie Bank.
Described as the
vampire kangaroo by critics,
Macquarie presided over
the near-collapse of Thames Water,
leaving it £10 billion in debt
after having illegally
dumped billions of litres
of raw sewage.
Reuben?
I know I can't be left
alone with her.
Privatised water is a better
deal than nationalised water.
That the water privatisation,
I believe,
will go very successfully indeed.
That will go very successfully
indeed.
And perhaps, therefore,
we had better wait and see,
so that we can pontificate in
the light of the facts.
How did it come to this?
How did it?
How did it happen that England is
the only place in the whole world
whose water system is
wholly privatised?
That our seas and our rivers
are full of shite?
I just feel like we're trying
to bring down England's
biggest organised crime syndicate.
I mean, they're not the mafia,
these water companies,
they're not a drugs cartel,
but they do
dump sewage a thousand times a day.
And almost all of those are illegal.
And the cash they've accumulated,
£145 billion since privatisation,
and they've got that because they
seem to have built criminality
into their business models.
So they are like an organised
crime syndicate
and the CEOs and the owners are like
crime bosses.
I mean, they don't murder people,
obviously, they're not assassins.
But me and Peter are sitting here
waiting for these crime lords
to put things right.
And if we leave them to
their own devices,
they never will.
They never will.
We've put the things that we own
and care about together,
we've put them into the hands
of financial speculators
whose job it is just to make money.
We need to put the people
who care in charge.