Independent analysis by Public First, commissioned by Water UK, finds that England will only have enough water for 420,000 of the Government's target of 1.5 million homes.
There is not enough spare water to accommodate the new housing and in some parts of the country there is only a 2% buffer between what is available and what is used.
England has been increasingly unable to supply new businesses and homes with the water they need for two reasons:
- Past governments have blocked applications to build new reservoirs, while planning rules continue to slow down new water infrastructure.
- New water resources, such as reservoirs, can only be designed on the basis that people and businesses use much less water than they actually do. Rules also prevent companies from building to meet future demand like the growing use of water by data centres.
Water UK’s recommendations include granting water schemes the same fast-track planning route used for Universal Studios, which cut its process from two years to six months, and instructing Natural England and the Environment Agency to use available scientific evidence rather than demanding unnecessary additional assessments based on hypothetical risks.
Household water use is falling more slowly than government targets assume. We also project business demand to rise as water-intensive industries such as data centres come online. Yet government targets force water companies to plan on the basis that business demand will fall by 9% by 2037-38. Water UK believes that assumptions about demand reduction should reflect real-world experience and not be unreasonably optimistic.
David Henderson, CEO of Water UK, said: "We desperately want to be able to provide enough water for new housing, but are being held back by a regulatory system that makes building new reservoirs much slower than it should be and unrealistic optimism about how much water people will use in the future.
“The fix is in the government's gift and most of it doesn't need new legislation."
