The Rivers Trust Movement has written to Water Minister Emma Hardy, calling on her to ensure money currently sitting unused in the Water Restoration Fund is paid out to start the task of reversing harm on the environment. This follows comments made by the Minister in Parliament last week criticising the Fund for having achieved nothing, this comment ignored the fact that not one penny has left the fund as a result of successive Governments, including her own, failing to ensure the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) releases funds to successful projects.

We want to be absolutely clear; there are many high-quality projects submitted to the Fund, including by Rivers Trusts, that could be achieving meaningful improvements to rivers, their catchments, and the nature and people that depend on them. In our letter, we shine a light on some of the impressive projects put forward by Rivers Trusts, proposing to work in partnership with local communities and landowners to tackle pollution, flooding, and threats to critical species like salmon.

The Water Restoration Fund was established to direct money from water company fines into nature restoration projects, ensuring that polluters pay to clean up the damage they cause to our environment. It is critical that the £11 million already committed to the Fund is distributed as a matter of urgency. It is up to the Government, including the Minister herself, to make sure this money comes out of the fund and starts to deliver improvements to our water environment.

You can read our joint letter below.

Dear Minister Hardy, 

While we welcome the strong new provisions contained in the Water (Special Measures) Bill that will help us hold water companies to account and applaud the Government for proceeding so quickly with their plans to reform the water sector, we are disappointed that the Government declined to enshrine the Water Restoration Fund in law, despite widespread support from parliamentarians, communities, and environmental groups.  

Furthermore, we were concerned by some of the comments you made in Parliament, which characterised the Fund has having achieved “absolutely nothing”. The fact is that not a single penny of the Fund has been allocated to projects; decisions on round one funding were expected in July, but despite consistent requests for more information, the Rural Payments Agency has not been in contact with applicants for months. This is not simply a legacy of the previous Government, as decisions have remained outstanding for 6 months of the new Labour Government’s tenure.  

It is absolutely critical that you direct the Rural Payments Agency to make a decision and release the funding as a matter of urgency, so that applicants are not endlessly left in the lurch, unable to progress with time- and weather-sensitive projects and watching investment opportunities time out. The march of inflation means that original quotes for work are rapidly becoming out of date and charities will have to subsidise the work from their own funds. 

The Fund has significant potential to deliver meaningful improvements to our rivers, their catchments, and the plants and wildlife that depend on them. This is in line with the Government’s stated priority of cleaning up our rivers. Among the plethora of projects submitted to the highly popular scheme, Rivers Trusts put forward proposals that would deliver diverse benefits to nature and people.  

Nene Rivers Trust’s project would restore a tributary of the River Nene and implement natural flood management to reduce risk of urban flooding in nearby Kettering while also improving habitats and biodiversity.  

West Cumbria Rivers Trust’s project would create a blueprint for the restoration and re-naturalisation of rivers in the Lake District National Park, improving the condition of the River Derwent and Bassenthwaite Lake SAC, which is currently in mostly ‘unfavourable – no change’ condition.  

Calder Rivers Trust’s project in collaboration with 4 other Rivers Trusts would establish a Yorkshire-wide agricultural advice network to effectively and collaboratively address farming pressures on the local water environment. 

River Waveney Trust’s project in partnership with the Broads Authority and Norwich University of the Arts would roll-out citizen science monitoring across the Waveney catchment, improving transparency around the state of the environment and empowering local communities to play their part in the solution. 

Westcountry Rivers Trust’s project would improve the condition of important salmon spawning grounds by working with an anaerobic digestion plant to improve feedstock practices and thereby decrease sedimentation impacting local waterways. 

These projects, among the many others submitted by other Rivers Trusts and wider environmental groups, would help Government achieve its manifesto commitment to cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas, and would put us on a better path to achieving our legally binding environmental targets by boosting water quality, water quantity, biodiversity, climate resilience and much more. 

Therefore, we urge you to direct the Rural Payments Agency to put an end to the delay and allow successful applicants to get on with the business of delivery, which is what our rivers and nature so desperately need. 

We would be happy to discuss any of the above with you in further detail at a time that is convenient to you. 

Yours sincerely, 

Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive, The Rivers Trust 

Rachel Forsyth, Chief Executive, Aire Rivers Trust 

Laurence Couldrick, Chief Executive Officer, Westcountry Rivers Trust 

Rachel Walker, Chief Executive Officer, Don Catchment Rivers Trust 

Charlotte Hitchmough, Chief Executive Officer, Action for the River Kennet 

Kathryn Soares, Chief Executive, Nene Rivers Trust 

Martha Meek, Director, River Waveney Trust 

Elizabeth Radford, Chief Executive Officer, Eden Rivers Trust 

Andy Bray, General Manager, Calder Rivers Trust 

John Sanders, Co-Director, Mersey Rivers Trust 

Jodie Mills, Director, West Cumbria Rivers Trust