ENVIRONMENT Secretary Thérèse Coffey says there has been “record amounts” of investment put into the UK’s sewage network, though Britons could see water bill rises following a £10 billion sewage upgrade.

She told GB News: “There has been record amounts of investment into our sewer network, in particular over the last 25 years since privatisation, that’s what that unlocked as well as what is supposed to be a more efficient way of doing these sorts of projects.

“We set out last year a storm overflow reduction plan to nearly £60 billion and what I want to make crystal clear is that people aren’t going to be paying for the penalties or the fine, that has to come from the companies themselves.

“We have seen the way getting that investment to modernising out infrastructure.

“For example, not far from here we’ve got the Thames tideway super-sewer, that’s a multi-billion pound project which has taken about a decade and is being paid for through bills over that length of time but that will eradicate the need for overflows themselves.”

Questioning Coffey about the extra costs for taxpayers, Camilla Tominey said: “But can you understand the frustration of people who are really hard pushed at the moment financially being charged more for what are water companies mistakes when it comes to sewage?”

Coffey replied: “What I’m saying to you is, the fines and the penalties will not be coming from taxpayers’ money.”

“So why is this extra money being added to our bills, water companies have said expect to pay more, even though we can’t swim in our rivers safely?” Tominey asked.

Coffey said: “Well actually Camilla, of our over 400 designated bathing water sites, the quality of that has gone up since 2010.

“Then there was about 70 per cent were deemed good or excellent, now it’s 93 per cent.”