Opinion: Burst Pipes, Broken Promises: Government Targets Could Leave Us High and Dry

Published on: 1 Sep, 2025
Updated on: 2 Sep, 2025

Cllr Liz Townsend

By Liz Townsend

Liberal Democrat borough councillor, portfolio holder for Planning at Waverley Borough Council

For decades, successive governments have ignored mounting warnings that our water and sewage infrastructure is reaching breaking point. The consequences are now all too visible: endless burst pipes, escalating sewage spills, increasing water shortages, and serious doubts over the financial health of water companies like Thames Water.

Against this backdrop, the government’s new housing targets pose an unprecedented risk to areas like Waverley. Our allocation has more than doubled—from 710 to over 1,440 new homes per year. That’s the equivalent of building two new towns the size of Godalming and Farnham within just two decades.

The pressure this places on already overstretched infrastructure cannot be overstated. We face a future where taps could run dry, toilets may go unflushed, and even more raw sewage could be dumped into our rivers.

This isn’t speculation—it’s already happening. In 2024, the Environment Agency reported a record 3.6 million hours of raw sewage discharges into England’s rivers and seas. Thames Water was responsible for nearly 300,000 of those hours. And those are just the official figures; the real total may be much higher.

Our allocation has more than doubled… the equivalent of building two new towns the size of Godalming and Farnham within just two decades.”

With Thames Water now on the verge of special administration, its ability to invest in critical infrastructure is in serious doubt. Its responses to planning applications have been inconsistent, and it has yet to explain how it intends to meet the demands that would come with these sharply increased housing numbers.

Other providers have at least been candid. Anglian Water, for example, has openly acknowledged that its current investment plans do not account for future housing growth. It has even advised planning authorities to refuse developments where infrastructure capacity is already inadequate. By contrast, Thames Water appears to downplay the problem—despite mounting evidence from its own customers.

This situation was avoidable. It’s not new. Over a decade ago, it was already clear that local sewage works couldn’t handle the scale of development being proposed. Water quality in our rivers was declining, and the security of our water supply was in question.

…market forces—not councils—determine how many homes get built, and what infrastructure gets delivered”

Since then, both Conservative and Labour governments have repeatedly increased housing targets while turning a blind eye to the crumbling state of water infrastructure and growing river pollution.

What’s worse, the system is failing to even deliver the housing it promises. Across England, there are approximately 1.4 million homes with unimplemented planning permission—including over 5,000 in Waverley alone. The current planning framework simply does not reflect the reality that it is market forces—not councils—that determine how many homes get built, and what infrastructure gets delivered.

Yet governments continue to impose penalties on councils when developers fail to build, pushing local authorities to approve even more applications—often on less sustainable sites with little or no infrastructure—just to meet arbitrary targets. But those permissions still face the same delays and market issues as the rest, and the infrastructure still doesn’t appear.

Unless central government formally recognises the scale of this crisis and legislates to deal with this, the situation will only deteriorate further. Without serious change, the promise of “the right homes in the right places” will remain exactly that—a promise. Meanwhile, our communities and environment will continue to bear the cost.

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