Liberal Democrat MPs last night voted against the Government’s weak proposal to tackling sewage in local rivers. Commenting after the vote Liberal Democrat Communities & Rural Affairs Spokesperson Tim Farron MP said:
Today, the government ignored millions of people who demanded action to save our treasured rivers and lakes. This is a slap in the face for what has been one of the boldest and more inspiring environmental campaigns in recent years.
We needed to see legislation with real teeth today which gave water companies hard deadlines and targets. Instead, we have a flimsy new law which won’t be strong enough to hold water companies to account.
We called today for a Sewage Tax, to make water companies pay for the mess they’ve made. The Liberal Democrats will continue to demand more action is taken against water companies, and we will stand up for all those who took part in this inspiring environmental campaign.
The “Sewage Tax” would tax the profits of water companies, which last year made pre-tax profits of £2.2 billion despite polluting Britain’s rivers with dangerous levels of sewage. The proposal would be a 16% tax on pre-tax profits, providing a £340 million fund to fix the sewage system – this would be in addition to the current 19% rate of corporation tax.
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2 Comments
Given the modern approach of debt loading and borrowing to pay dividends ie. minimise pre-tax profit, perhaps we need to get more creative in what is being taxed.
Seeing that 6 of the 9 are foriegn owned what can we do?Put a tax on shareholders?