Government introduces ambitious new measures to help households across England use water more efficiently, to encourage water efficient products and a more consistent approach to leakage.
The proposals – announced in response to a public consultation on personal water usage – will balance the growing demand on national supplies with 25 Year Environment Plan ambition to achieve clean and plentiful water. They will be key to the Government’s 2050 net zero target as heating water accounts for approximately 17% of an average household’s energy use.
As water supplies come under increasing pressure from climate change and population growth, these new commitments will also protect supplies for the future.
The proposals include:
- Introducing mandatory water efficiency labels for products such as dishwashers and showers will help people to make informed choices about how they can save water without having to make significant changes to their daily lives. This would be similar to the traffic light energy efficiency labels that already exist;
- Asking water companies to develop a consistent approach on fixing customer supply pipe leakage. Over the last 10 years around 25% of total leakage has been from customer supply pipes;
- Encouraging local authorities to adopt a tighter standard of 110 litres per person per day, compared with the current standard of 125 litres, for new homes where appropriate, requiring developers to install more efficient fixtures and fittings;
- Developing a roadmap towards greater water efficiency in new developments and through retrofits – including options such as rainwater harvesting; water re-use and storage options.
These measures, along with the work from water companies to reduce leakage by 50%, will help meet the ambitions set out in the National Framework for Water Resources to reduce average personal water consumption to 110 litres per person per day by 2050.
Following advice from the Environment Agency, the Secretary of State has also agreed to designate seven additional water company areas as being in serious water stress.
Severn Trent Water, South Staffordshire Water, Wessex Water, Portsmouth Water, Cambridge Water, the Bournemouth area of South West Water, and the Isles of Scilly must now publish a water resources management plan (WRMP) that considers all options to manage demand more effectively – including metering and greater leakage reduction.
The government will make no changes to existing rules around when people can be charged for their water use through water meters. Water companies in these areas may only implement wider water metering programmes where there is customer support and it is cost effective to do so. These programmes must be justified by water companies and achieve customer support, striking the right balance between the need to protect water supplies and importance of water companies reducing leakage before expanding the use of water meters. This protects unmetered family homes from unexpected large increases in bills.
Each company’s water resources management plan will be subject to public consultation in 2022 before the Environment Secretary decides whether a company should be allowed to publish and implement its final plan.
