Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how she plans to monitor compliance with proposed water efficiency standards.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are consulting on tighter water efficiency standards for new homes in Building Regulations. Within this we have assessed the policy’s impact on home construction and will be considering developer responses to enable a smooth transition. Our assessment considered the policy at a national level and not specifically its impact on Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes. Industry research found the cost of water efficiency is low for developers in comparison with the cost of development blockages caused by subsequent water scarcity. The cost of retrofitting water efficient devices is around £40-100 and can be offset by the incentives offered to developers by water companies.
The proposed measures will unlock stalled developments in areas of water scarcity and could unlock 1,000 homes for every 5,250 built, while saving households over £100 a year on bills.
The Government response to the consultation will outline how we propose to monitor and evaluate the final policy.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding her Department has allocated for advertising public schemes for recycling water.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We continue to work closely with regulators to support progress in this area to reduce water demand.
Ofwat are on track to launch the Water Efficiency Campaign (WEC) in spring 2026 and continue to engage closely with Defra, the Welsh Government, NRW, the Environment Agency, and water companies on the campaign’s governance, structure, and strategy.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has a set timeline for achieving Good Ecological Status for all waterbodies in England.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), transposed into our law through the Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) (England and Wales) 2017, has an overall goal to aim to achieve Good Ecological Status (GES) for surface water by December 2027, subject to certain exemptions. Applying the exemptions provided for in WFD represents 77% of England’s water bodies to achieve GES. These goals set a very challenging ambition for the UK as WFD does for most European countries.
The Government acknowledged last year in response to the Office of Environmental Protection’s report on Water Framework Directive Regulations that there had not been enough progress towards the Framework's goal over the last 15 years. Since then, the Government launched the Independent Water Commission, to consider how the current regulatory framework could be improved to drive progress and clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. The Government will be setting out its plans to do this in the coming period.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate her Department has made of the cost to the public purse of reinstating (a) full public access and (b) navigation at Temple Footbridge in Hurley.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Full navigation access at Temple Footbridge will be reinstated once the central section of the bridge is removed and taken off site for inspection and secure storage. This is now expected to take place in November 2025, at a cost of approximately £450,000. Public pedestrian access will be reinstated once the bridge is either refurbished or replaced. The costs of this will be known once the outline design is completed in March 2026 and the removed central section in fully inspected.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Environment Agency has allocated funding for the (a) repair and (b) reopening of Temple Footbridge in Hurley.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) is investing up to £500k this financial year to progress the initial phases of the Temple Footbridge (Hurley) and Marsh Horsebridge (Henley on Thames) projects. This includes the preparation of outline designs, which are expected to be completed by 31 March 2026, along with any further specialist surveys and visualisations that are needed to assist the future delivery of these projects. The outline designs will be used to calculate the indicative costs of the completed projects, and therefore how much partnership funding will be needed alongside any government grant in aid that will be allocated. The EA has been working with local stakeholders to develop a partnership funding strategy for these projects. This will start to be implemented once the outline designs and completion costs are finalised.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on the number of households on water company priority services registers that have experienced supply interruptions of (a) six, (b) 12 and (c) 24 hours or more in each of the last five years.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Approximately 3,112,400 customers were on the Priority Services Register in 2023/24.
Asked by: Jack Rankin (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the cost of maintaining and keeping open the Jubilee River Channel in the last four years.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Jubilee River is part of the Maidenhead, Windsor and Eaton Flood Alleviation Scheme which is operated and maintained by the Environment Agency. The cost of maintaining and keeping the Jubilee River channel open are difficult to extract from the overall cost of operating and maintaining the flood alleviation scheme; calculating this would fall into disproportionate costs. The Environment Agency has allocated £2.3m for maintenance and capital improvements on the whole Maidenhead, Windsor and Eaton Flood Alleviation Scheme this year. In previous years spending has varied, depending on the programme of work.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of annual re-validation requirements for priority services register customers on retention of vulnerable households; and if she will consider introducing an (a) opt-out and (b) auto-renewal model for customers (i) aged 75+, (ii) on disability benefits and (iii) with clinically significant needs.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra does not regulate the priority services register. Ofwat, as the economic regulator, has made clear in their priority services register guidance that companies should achieve actual contact with 35% of households on their priority services register every two years, and attempt contact with 90% of households on the register every two years.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the number and proportion of households registered on water companies’ priority services registers in each region of England.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Approximately 3,112,400 customers were on the Priority Services Register in 2023/24. More precise information is not held by the department.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of water company compliance with priority services register commitments during unplanned outages.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
New customer service standards came into force on 1 October, which include a standard on the priority services register. These set out the minimum standards of service companies must provide to customers registered for any of the three core priority services, one of which is delivery of an alternative water supply during any supply interruption. If, during a supply interruption, a company does not provide or is late in providing this service to the registered customer, they must automatically make a minimum £100 payment to the customer.