Environment Secretary Therese Coffey has admitted she is "pretty fed up" with the UK's water companies after they have been compelled to apologise over sewage spills.

Ms Coffey stated it was not "acceptable" that there have been 300,000 sewage spill occasions in England final 12 months.

Her phrases come after water and sewage companies in England issued a public apology for "not acting quickly enough" on spills and vowed to spend £10bn to wash up their act.

Industry physique Water UK stated campaigners have been "right to be upset about the current quality of our rivers and beaches" because it introduced the package deal of funding on Thursday - which it claimed could be "the biggest modernisation of sewers since the Victorian era".

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Asked on the Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme whether or not she was "angry" on the water companies, the cupboard minister replied: "I would say I'm pretty fed up with the water companies and we've seen an apology this week which is the right thing for them to have done.

"I believe what's essential is to make it possible for we now have a plan and we set out a plan for water to attempt to deal with these points."

Untreated sewage was pumped into England's rivers and seas at least 301,091 times last year - an average of 824 a day - according to Environment Agency (EA) data.

That represented a fall of almost a fifth on 2021's 372,533 spills, although the EA said that had been "largely right down to dry climate, not water firm motion".

Despite the announcement of £10bn funding, there was public anger after it emerged it will be paid for by clients by way of "modest increases to their bills".

Ruth Kelly, chair of Water UK, told Sky News this week that water companies will present a "huge multi-billion down-payment" to begin "the biggest transformation project since Victorian times".

She added: "The way the system works is that over the lifetime of the assets, customers do pay that money back in modest increases in their bills."

Asked by Ridge whether or not invoice payers could be "picking up the tab", Ms Coffey replied: "Through different ways it's going to be a combination - of course penalties and fines are paid for by the company, not by the bill payer, but in terms of general payments, I think you're right to say that a lot of this investment gets repaid through by bills and a small amount of return."

Ms Coffey went on to say that over £30bn was paid out in dividends to shareholders when Labour was in energy from 1997 to 2010, including: "Going forward the dividends will be significantly lower than what had happened in the past."

Ridge interjected: "Should there be dividends in any respect? Should they be making earnings and creating wealth at occasions when invoice payers are those right here who're having to pay for what has occurred earlier than?

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"Well one of many issues that Ofwat (the water regulator) does is to make it possible for any investments are deemed to be good worth for cash.

"One of the things is that penalties can end up with reimbursements to customers, but I think it's critical to say that we are getting to grips with a situation - we unveiled that surge of sewage, and that's why our plans I think will be effective in getting these solutions fixed."

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Water UK stated the £10bn comes along with a earlier dedication to take a position £3.1bn, and will likely be spent this decade.

This can pay for measures together with enlarging and bettering pipes and putting in the equal of hundreds of Olympic-sized swimming swimming pools underground to carry surges in rainwater that will in any other case overload the system.

The package deal goals to chop sewage overflows by as much as 140,000 annually, in contrast with 2020 ranges.