A government compromise aimed, ministers said, at cutting raw sewage dumping by water companies was passed by MPs on Monday after Conservative rebels backed ministers.
Campaigners for clean water said they were disappointed that what they viewed as a less stringent amendment had been approved. They said the government’s compromise was too weak and did not impose a legal duty on water companies to stop releasing raw sewage into waterways.
But Rebecca Pow, an environment minister, told MPs that the government’s amendment did place a clear legal duty on water companies to deliver improvements to storm overflows. She said the government had taken its wording from the Lords amendment, which was supported by 22 Tory rebels last week, to place a
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