Following the statement from Labour’s Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change on plans to create a new economic regulator for water in Wales, the Welsh Conservatives have criticised Labour’s long-standing failure to protect Wales’ waterways. Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and the Environment, Janet Finch-Saunders MS, said that after more than two decades of Labour control, Wales continues to suffer from rising sewage pollution, higher water bills and weak enforcement.
Mrs Finch-Saunders further questioned Labour’s regulation of the sector through Natural Resources Wales (NRW), highlighting persistently high pollution levels and ineffective enforcement, and warned that creating a new regulator risks becoming another layer of bureaucracy rather than delivering real change.
Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and the Environment, Janet Finch-Saunders MS, said:
“After 27 years of Labour and Plaid Cymru mismanagement, it’s hard to believe that by simply creating a new water regulator we will suddenly see cleaner rivers in Wales.
“NRW has been run by Labour since its creation, and it has consistently failed to hold polluters to account. That’s why I have little confidence that a new regulator, will succeed where Labour has repeatedly failed.
“A new regulator won’t stop sewage spills, won’t fix broken infrastructure and won’t prevent further water bill rises. The Welsh Conservatives would enforce the law properly, and make polluters pay, not families and not the environment.”
ENDS
Note to editors:
The Statement from the Welsh Government can be found here.
