The Environment Agency has been left dangerously underfunded, with staff numbers cut and investigations into pollution incidents slashed by over a third, according to former employees and official data. Helen Nightingale, who joined the agency's predecessor in 1991, described her early work as a 'dream job' where she would respond immediately to public reports of pollution. But she says the agency has lost its way, with resources diverted from river protection to box-ticking inspections of waste sites.
After the coalition government took power in 2010, water teams faced further cuts. In 2021, staff were told they could no longer investigate many public complaints due to lack of funding. Freedom of information requests show that the number of pollution incidents attended by staff fell by 36% between 2018 and 2023. Last year, English water companies discharged untreated sewage nearly half a million times, and dozens of beaches are now regularly unsafe for swimming.
The agency's problems extend beyond rivers. Britain's environment is in a 'terrible condition', with vast areas of natural habitat degraded or destroyed and one in six species at risk of extinction. Of 40 post-Brexit environmental targets, the country is on track to meet just four. The condition of England's rivers has become a potent source of public anger, with three-quarters of constituencies with the worst sewage discharge rates held by Conservative MPs.
Nightingale, who now works for the charity River Action, says the agency has been 'muzzled' by government cuts. 'We do not have sufficient funding to continue to provide our current level of environment management,' the agency told staff in 2021, adding: 'You get the environment you pay for.'
