Our natural environment is a precious resource and integral to our lives. Our water networks provide the basis for life, and it is crucial that we protect them from pollution and degradation. Every waterdrop cycles continuously through air, land, and sea sustaining habitats for wildlife and providing the water we need to drink, grow food and clean.
Locally, we are beginning to make significant progress to restore our waterways, including globally rare and significant chalk stream habitats like the River Lark. Running through Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, and one of only about 250 chalk rivers in the world, the Lark is one of twelve chalk streams identified as a national priority. Its restoration in vital for our local habitats and the health of water networks beyond our borders. In August, I was pleased to see us reach a significant milestone in the campaign to revitalise the Lark when I invited the Environment Minister, Rebecca Pow, to witness the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Anglian Water, the Environmental Agency, Norfolk Rivers Trust, and Water Resources East. Anglia Water have designated the Lark as their number one propriety as far as improving catchment areas goes. This was a critical step in ensuring the Lark and the habitats it supports are restored to the best state possible with speed.
In order to better enable the restoration of these aquatic ecosystems, the government has unveiled new plans to ringfence money from fines handed out to water companies that pollute our rivers and seas. The money will be directly re-invested back into environmental and water quality improvement projects. This new fund comes on top of the requirement for water companies to invest in the natural environment, as well as holding them to account through tough new targets which will raise the largest ever environmental infrastructure investment of £56 billion over 25 years.
In recent years, some water companies have taken strides to improve practises to reduce pollution incidents. While progress in welcome, considerably more is necessary as evidenced by the record amount in fines for pollution incidents last year issued by Ofwat as part of ongoing action to hold rule-breakers to account. Since 2015, the Environment Agency has concluded 56 prosecutions against water and sewerage companies, securing fines of over £141 million. At present, money from these fines is returned to the Treasury and may be redirected to various government departments. Under the new plans, these funds will go to DEFRA and may be used for numerous initiatives to restore our aquatic environments by creating wetlands, re-vegetating riverbanks and reconnecting meanders to the mains channel of rivers. This national intervention will enable restoration projects like ours to happen across the country and at greater speed.
But on working with the River Lark catchment partnership since 2015, I know how important our natural environment is - beyond its function in giving and sustaining life, it also has an impact on our physical and mental wellbeing. Our constituency is revered for its natural beauty and as the rural jewel in the heart of Suffolk, like so many locally I am keen to preserve its charm for generations to come.
