Rivers Trusts and other charities are relieved to hear that the £11m of water company fines due to be paid out in grants last July as part of the Water Restoration Fund set up by the last government will now, at long last, be awarded. The Rivers Trust has been chasing up these promised funds, which have been languishing in government coffers for too long since last autumn.

Today we are calling on the government to set out clearly its plans for the Water Restoration Fund in the longer term. Not only do we, and other charities, want to see fines paid to the Environment Agency ring fenced for river restoration in this way, but we would also like to see OFWAT penalties and fines paid by other polluters added to the pot. This country’s precious streams, rivers and lakes are in dire need of billions of pounds of investment to restore natural habitats and improve our resilience to climate change and pollution.

These funds would make a meaningful contribution to that effort, which is being delivered by a wide range of hard-pressed charities. The Water Restoration Fund would pay for removal of dams and weirs, re-wiggling rivers, re-naturalising riverbanks with trees, back waters and wetlands, fencing out livestock and a wide range of other projects that improve the resilience of ecosystems to flood, drought and pollution.