“In its evidence to the committee, the Environment Agency said that in 2021 the environmental performance of water companies was “at its lowest ever level” and the performance of most companies was declining.”” - https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/cleaning-up-failures-in-w...
“Sewage spills in the UK hit a record high in 2023, amplifying public anger at the state of the country's dirty rivers and the private companies responsible for the pollution, such as the country's biggest supplier, Thames Water.”
- https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/uk-aims-curb-wa...
That tells us nothing useful about the state of things 15+yrs ago. Only that 2023 was the worst. Could have been bad for 100yrs, just the worst in 2023.
Everything gets spun, but the simplest way I can understand this is that water shouldn't be getting dirtier in England. It should be cleaner. Of course the regulate-everything crowd will jump on this as delicious confirmation bias, but there are also plenty of sensible people who also think this is worth investigating and enforcing.
It tells us enough to counter the low effort "even just cleaner 15 years ago? lol, they were not". If 2023 was the worst it had ever been, then they were cleaner at all points in the past. Q.E.D.
Unfortunately 14 years of deregulation by allowing companies to dump waste into rivers have rendered much of these beautiful waterways unswimmable.