A LIBERAL Democrat MP has slammed ‘a blank cheque written with taxpayers money to fund polluting, profiteering firms’.

The political party are seeking to ensure the Government’s new Infrastructure Bank does not invest in water companies unless they produce a ‘costed and time-limited plan to end sewage discharges into local rivers’.

MPs will vote on a new bill which would make it into a law for the UK Infrastructure Bank. Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran has signed an amendment, tabled by Richard Foord, to ‘ensure strict sewage discharge conditions are placed on water companies before they can receive funds from the proposed Infrastructure Bank’.

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Ms Moran slammed taxpayers' funds going to water companies as ‘scandalous’. voluminous sewage discharges.

The MP for Oxford West and Abingdon said: “It would be a scandal if taxpayers’ money was given to the same firms that continue to poison our rivers and coastlines.

“Without adding strict sewage conditions to the bill, it will be a blank cheque for taxpayers’ money to fund these polluting, profiteering firms.

“These are the very same water companies that line their executives’ pockets with bonuses worth millions of pounds. Now they expect public money to bail out the companies and patch up the leaking pipes they’ve long neglected. 

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“My own constituency has suffered from regular sewage gushing into our rivers and even into people’s gardens. Until that stops, the Government shouldn’t be throwing taxpayers’ money at water companies.”

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This story was written by Gee Harland. She joined the team in 2022 as a senior multimedia reporter.

Gee covers Abingdon, Didcot, Wallingford and Wantage.

Get in touch with her by emailing: gee.harland@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @geeharland