Drought Conditions: England

Emma Hardy Excerpts

Friday 16th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Hardy)]

Before I turn to the statement, I would like to add my voice to the many others offering sympathy and support to the family of Sir David Amess in the week of the anniversary of his murder. It was always a real pleasure to work with him on the all-party parliamentary group on endometriosis. He is remembered very fondly.

With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I wish to update the House on the ongoing drought in England. Drought conditions continue across much of England. Last week Yorkshire moved into drought status. That means that over 80% of England is now in drought, affecting around 50 million people. The south-east and south-west in particular have experienced their driest April to September in over a century, with low rainfall causing exceptionally low reservoir levels in parts of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex and West Sussex.

As of 15 October, Wimbleball reservoir is approximately 16% full—its lowest recorded level for this time of year. Other reservoirs in the south-west are also at exceptionally low levels, including those serving the Roadford and Colliford water resource zones, and Ardingly reservoir, for example, is around 20% full.

As a result, yesterday the Government declared severe drought in the affected water resource zones around Wimbleball, Ardingly, Roadford and Colliford, and in west Cornwall. I have issued a ministerial direction to the Environment Agency to prioritise protecting public water supplies in areas affected by severe drought where there is an unavoidable trade-off between environmental rules and water supplies. That will allow water companies to keep more water in depleted reservoirs. The Environment Agency has also agreed temporary measures that will conserve water in Wimbleball and extend the resilience of public water supplies.

Severe drought is the highest classification in the Environment Agency’s drought framework. While customer supplies are not interrupted, declaring a severe drought allows us to ensure that proactive steps are taken to safeguard water before any disruption occurs. We have instructed water companies to conduct daily monitoring of reservoir and river levels and tougher water quality monitoring. The Environment Agency will increase compliance checks on businesses that withdraw water from natural sources to ensure that they are only taking permitted quantities of water. Local resilience forums will be stood up to enable quick and effective development of support if required.

Although water companies remain responsible for maintaining public water supplies and for taking action under their drought and emergency plans, we can all help by thinking about ways to use water wisely over the coming weeks. However, this level of drought is something that we have not experienced for decades, so it is right that the Government step up our support and work closely with water companies to protect public supplies in the areas affected.

Over recent days, I have met with those leading efforts to protect water supplies in affected areas, including Wimbleball. On Wednesday I visited Wimbleball reservoir, where I met South West Water, Wessex Water, local resilience forums and Environment Agency teams to discuss the actions they are taking to protect public water supply. Yesterday I met the chief executive of South East Water and representatives from the Environment Agency to review conditions at Ardingly reservoir and the response in the south-east. I have also spoken with Members of Parliament who represent affected constituencies and sent letters explaining the steps that they can take to support our resilience efforts in their local areas.

This week I chaired the first meeting of the Government’s new flood and drought resilience taskforce, bringing together over 50 stakeholders to strengthen the nation’s ability to plan for and respond to extreme weather, and I continue to oversee response measures through weekly national drought group meetings, to track that all necessary actions are taken to conserve water resources and maintain resilience.

While the record-breaking heat and lack of rainfall have put our water resources under immense pressure this year, we must take action now to prevent this situation from becoming the norm. We are at the start of a decade-long journey to a very different water system, including nine new major reservoirs to secure supplies. I will continue to take the action needed to protect essential public water supplies and, of course, I will continue to keep the House and Members informed as the situation develops.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Robbie Moore (Keighley and Ilkley) (Con)]

I thank the Minister for advance sight of her statement. Today’s update reinforces what farmers, rural communities and households have known for months: England is in the grip of a drought, and the Government have been slow to react. Eleven areas are now in drought, with Yorkshire the latest to be declared. Ten water companies have hosepipe bans in force. Drought-related environmental incidents have already overtaken the totals of 2022 and 2025. This is the third drought in five years. It should not have caught the Government off guard, but here we are on a sitting Friday, listening to the Water Minister roll out an emergency statement, effectively saying she has been busy having meetings.

On 31 July, two and a half months ago, the shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Louth and Horncastle (Victoria Atkins), wrote to the Environment Agency setting out six practical steps. Ministers have since said that they will adopt some of them, which is welcome, but it is highly surprising that in this statement from a Minister in the Department that represents food policy, there was not one mention of the impact the drought is having on our farmers and our growers. Why was that?

The key questions remain. The Government talk a big game about their new water Bill and taking back public control, yet the primary action announced today is instructing water companies to conduct daily monitoring. Does that mean they have not been doing that to date? If the national drought group has been meeting regularly since August, why are water companies only now being told to step up their drought planning? Why is the Minister willing to relax strict environmental regulations for water companies when they have failed to protect customer supplies through not undertaking significant investment in dealing with leakage and enhancing water storage? What does this say to the many households that are facing increased water bills?

The Minister highlights upgrades in investment and promises to build nine new major reservoirs, but she has also admitted that this is a decade-long journey. Our communities, our farmers and our businesses are facing severe challenges today. When exactly will the first reservoir be built, and will she release a timeframe for each? Some on-farm reservoirs are reporting being a fifth full or less heading into winter, yet farmers are still waiting for the reopened water management grant, and planning and licensing hurdles to building water storage remain far too high.

The Government announced a £65 million drought package, but what has happened to it? It was money already sitting unallocated in the farming budget. Most of it was poured into the sustainable farming incentive, and look what happened to that. Will the Minister update us on how she is making it easier for farmers to have on-farm reservoirs? The Opposition will work constructively with anyone serious about protecting our food and water security, but we will hold this Government to account when they fall short, and right now they are falling short—significantly short—of what farmers, rural communities and our households expect.

[Emma Hardy]

It is a shame that the Opposition spokesperson is not taking this as seriously as required. To respond briefly to his points about what this Government have done, there are many things I can do—unfortunately, I cannot make it rain, but what I can do is ensure that this Government are prepared, and that is exactly what we have been doing.

In February this year, DEFRA and Cobra ran a cross-Government drought exercise to test the current response arrangements, with lessons learned from the previous year. We have been planning for this since we came into government, because this Government actually believe that climate change is real. We are not a Government of climate change deniers. We are not a Government who wish to repeal the Climate Change Act 2008 and think that when it is sunny, we should just enjoy more barbecues.

This Government have been preparing for drought since I became Water Minister. In February, we ran the cross-Government exercise, and we have been working with water companies on emergency drought measures. Last winter, a year ago, regulators and water companies were already looking to take action because we know that this is the new normal when it comes to our weather. That is why we are preparing for it.

The shadow Minister asks what we are doing to support farmers, but it is this Government who are giving £15 million for on-farm reservoirs, it this Government who are making the planning system easier so that farmers can build reservoirs, and it is this Government who are looking into flexible abstraction so that farmers can fill the reservoirs that we are helping them build. Frankly, it was the previous Government who failed to prepare for any of that during their 14 years in office.

[Olivia Blake (Sheffield Hallam) (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for her statement. Despite what the shadow Minister said, this situation is unprecedented: the first time a severe drought has ever been declared in the UK. This is incredibly shocking for what has historically and famously been our wet island. Drought has just been declared in Yorkshire. Consumers in my constituency often raise the issue of leaks with me. How can we ensure that water companies address leaks before asking consumers to reduce their usage?

[Emma Hardy]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. That was another challenge that we faced when coming into office, but companies are now fixing more leaks than ever before. They are also increasing the number of engineers who can fix those leaks. During this review, £720 million is going into smart technology, including the use of metering.

One of the many reasons why metering is so important is that it helps customers to identify leaks; sometimes, they have not been aware of them. We are absolutely holding the companies to account, through the weekly national drought group meetings, to make sure that fixing leaks remains one of their priorities. It is one of the cheapest ways of ensuring that there is more water in the system.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Dr Al Pinkerton (Surrey Heath) (LD)]

The Liberal Democrats are deeply concerned by the declaration of severe drought across the south-east and south-west. It is a stark warning. We are in the grip of a climate crisis, and our water system lacks the resilience to address the water insecurity that that crisis is substantially causing.

The Government and water companies must act now and at speed. Families, schools and businesses deserve to know that their taps will keep running and that the current situation will not become the new normal. The best way to save water is not to waste the water we have. Water companies must act to cut leakage, follow drought plans and invest in resilient infrastructure. Bill payers should not pay for decades of under-investment while nearly 3 billion litres of water escapes through leaking pipes every day.

Farmers and food production face enormous pressures. Farmers may already have lost hundreds of millions of pounds to drought this year. The Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit estimates losses of nearly £5 billion across three weather-hit years. As I know the Minister knows, food security is national security. But the family farm tax, DEFRA budget cuts and the mishandling of the sustainable farming incentive are right now putting agriculture in jeopardy. Will the Government change course and back the Liberal Democrat plan for an additional £1 billion for the farming budget?

In the long term, we need greater water storage, recycling, transfers and sustainable desalination alongside the fundamental reform of water companies failing to cope with the changing climate. Britain’s farms have enormous untapped potential to store water. Outdated planning rules and inadequate support are holding them back, and the Government’s £15 million reservoir fund does not even scratch the surface. Will the Minister today commit to a national “call to store” programme to identify on-farm storage capacity, remove planning barriers and back farmers, who want to be part of the solution?

[Emma Hardy]

I thank the hon. Gentleman, who is absolutely right to highlight the importance of farmers being able to store water on their land. We have been working closely with the NFU on that through the national drought group. But as I have said, as well as building the reservoirs, we need to focus on how to fill them up. DEFRA, the Environment Agency and the NFU are doing really interesting work on regional water resource groups and how we can strengthen water companies’ livestock resilience; supply outages have been a big concern. They are looking at one of the approaches being developed by South East Water: livestock registers, so that water companies are aware of where water is needed for livestock. They are also looking at flexible and dynamic abstraction. One thing the farmers said to me—I support them on this—is that the strict abstraction licences they have are based on dates rather than the amount of water in the environment. We are looking to trial a much more common-sense approach to abstraction in areas so that, if it suddenly chucks it down with rain, we would allow them to take more water

As well as dealing with the immediate situation with the extreme drought, my ambition is to look at how we ensure our reservoirs are as full as possible going into spring next year. I am very keen to work in partnership. There is always a balance between thinking about public health—which must come first—and the environment, and ensuring farmers have what they need. That is why that national drought group matters so much: it brings together all the important players and we try to work through that, but there is also that issue at the front of my mind.

[Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)]

As the Minister acknowledged, Yorkshire is now in drought, and at least part of the blame must be with the water companies such as Yorkshire Water who have failed to prioritise any long-term investment over short-term financial interests. Does the Minister agree that we need to use the upcoming water Bill to strengthen and change the way our water companies are run, so that they are run in the interests of citizens and consumers instead of profit-making companies?

[Emma Hardy]

I agree with my hon. Friend that we absolutely need to be putting people first; the Prime Minister could not have been clearer when he talked about public control. She is also right to highlight the lack of resilience we have seen building up. Many water companies have areas that are like islands within them, where they are unable to move water around the network—they simply do not have the resilience required. That shows a complete failure of the regulatory system of the previous 14 years that allowed the situation to develop. One really important thing we are looking at in the water Bill is having resilience standards so that a company can move water from a part of its network where there is an excess to a part where there is not. You would think, Madam Deputy Speaker, that they would have developed that very basic thing by now.

[Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)]

I had a delightful soggy drive in this morning, so hallelujah: it has rained a small amount in my constituency. However, as the Minister knows, we are now in severe drought because of the low rainfall, record-breaking temperatures this summer and the impact of El Niño. It has now been announced that we are likely to get standpipes. Constituents with water-dependent businesses are already very worried and at their wits’ end. The fixing of leaks has been too slow.

Under the Secretary of State’s guidance, there is the possibility of emergency pipes between Weir Wood and Ardingly reservoir, which is now under 20% full, but that is not a long-term answer. I know the Minister is doing a huge amount of work and having meetings on this, but can she help to arrange aligning infrastructure investment plans between Southern Water and South East Water to deliver effective change and real peace of mind for my constituents, for whom the situation is of deep worry?

[Emma Hardy]

I recognise how important this is to the hon. Lady and her constituents. I made the promise on the call—I will reiterate it—that I want to work closely with all Members of Parliament who are directly impacted. I reassure her there are no current plans for the use of standpipes. Our declaration of severe drought means a slight change in prioritisation from the Environment Agency, which has that direction that public health must come first. It is looking at increasing monitoring. As a responsible Government, we are preparing for every scenario, but there are no immediate plans for standpipes. Our immediate request to all Members of Parliament is: please go and share the Let’s Save Water campaign, which is a national campaign that has been running all summer—hopefully some hon. Members have seen it—with the little kids in the blue tracksuits. I see some nodding; that is great. We should try to share that as much as we possibly can.

The hon. Lady is right to highlight resilience, which is a challenge with South East Water. Again, it is one of those companies that has islands and is unable to move water around. She was right to point that out as a problem, and we want to work with the company on that. Let us deal with this emergency right now, but what are its longer-term plans to have greater resilience? Those have to involve looking at the ability to move water around. She is right that that must involve working closely with Southern Water as well.

[Matthew Patrick (Wirral West) (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for her statement and the actions she is taking. It seems clear that climate change is playing its role, but, in her assessment, what else is contributing to this problem and what long-term steps are the Government taking to ensure that we are building up resilience to deal with the consequences of climate change for all of us?

[Emma Hardy]

To reiterate what I said at the beginning, we have had exceptionally low rainfall—the lowest in over a century—but my hon. Friend is absolutely right that we cannot keep saying that we expect our country to be soggy. We have whiplash weather now—we go from flood to drought. We could even be in a situation where I update the House on drought and then have to update it on flooding. That is the situation we now have in our country, which we expect to be turbocharged by how El Niño plays out over the winter and into the next year.

That is why we need resilient standards and why the water Bill matters so much. It is why water companies need to focus on public good rather than other priorities they may have had in the past. We need whole-scale change so that we have a system that is fit for the future, rather than the one we have at the moment, which seems to be based on water companies hoping that it might rain, which is simply not good enough. We are determined to change that through our Bill.

[Sir Christopher Chope (Christchurch) (Con)]

The Minister is doing her best in very difficult circumstances. Does she agree that one of the problems is that over recent years the Government have given insufficient subsidy and support for adaptation measures and been obsessed with subsidising windmills and solar panels, which will not do anything to deal with the real problems on the ground that we are experiencing?

[Emma Hardy]

As a Member of Parliament for Hull, where the Siemens wind turbine factory employs lots of local people, I think wind turbines are a great idea. More seriously, in response to the hon. Gentleman’s question, adaptation is hugely important, which is why we need greater resilience in the system. We keep saying “the new normal”, but going between extremes of flood and drought is now the normal. Believe it or not, I am giving this statement on drought in Flood Action Week.

The hon. Member is right: we need to look at adaptation. That is why it is important to have conversations with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government about new home standards and water efficiency. This is a cross-Government issue, not just a DEFRA issue. That is why it was great to have a Minister from the Department for Transport, MHCLG and the Cabinet Office as well as a DEFRA Minister at the flood and drought taskforce this week. Resilience is an everyone problem and an every-part-of- Government issue.

[Kevin Bonavia (Stevenage) (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for her serious statement setting out the gravity of the situation this country is in. It is a bit rich for the Opposition to say that the Government are not doing enough in the face of what this country is up against when they had many years to build not just one, but several reservoirs, as our Government are now talking about. Will the Minister give the House the commitment that the Government will do all they can to make these major projects happen?

[Emma Hardy]

I can absolutely give that commitment. It is hugely important. It is, frankly, shocking that we have not built a new reservoir in years, developed any new sources of water or looked at desalination. It is an abject failure to prepare and develop the resilience this country needs. I am absolutely determined to change that. The basics of being able to move water more easily around the country and store it when it rains are the least the public expects. It highlights again that they were terribly failed by the previous Government.

[Lincoln Jopp (Spelthorne) (Con)]

I thank the Minister for her statement. Can I be helpful? I have half of London’s drinking water in my constituency. While some benefits of floating solar are well known—they are twice as efficient as land-based systems and have none of the opportunity costs of putting solar panels on agricultural land—one of the less well-known benefits is that it reduces evaporation by 70%. I did not notice the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero in the list of ministries in her taskforce. Will she work further across Government to encourage water companies to install floating solar? Some farmers are doing that where they have planning permission for reservoirs.

[Emma Hardy]

I thank the hon. Gentleman. [Interruption.] I have just seen a good nodding from the Minister for Energy, and he is absolutely right to say that putting floating solar across reservoirs helps with evaporation. I thank him for raising that point, and I am pleased that my colleague also heard it.

[Dr Peter Prinsley (Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket) (Lab)]

Bottled water businesses are worth billions of pounds, yet when I was a child nobody drank bottled water and I have often wondered why that is. Does the Minister agree that whatever the drought situation, tap water for drinking must remain the very highest priority?

[Emma Hardy]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, and I have given the ministerial direction to prioritise public health and public water supply over anything else. Our drinking water is rated one of the highest in the world, so people can guzzle and enjoy it. It is super nice in Yorkshire, where it tastes that little bit better than in other parts of the country. Members should enjoy a nice glass when they get home.

[Edward Morello (West Dorset) (LD)]

2026 will be the hottest year on record, and in all likelihood it will also be the coolest year that we will experience going forward. This is climate change, this is now the norm, and it is clear that our water systems, infrastructure and water companies are failing us. South West Water lost 107 million litres a day last year, which is equivalent to more than 100 litres per customer every day. Since 2013 it has received £40 million a year from central Government, while more than £1.5 billion has been paid out to shareholders in dividends. What have customers and my constituents got? Higher bills and sewage. They are angry, I am angry; they are fed up, I am fed up. The water Bill is a huge opportunity finally to start fixing the problem. Will the Minister support the Liberal Democrat proposal for a new mutual ownership model, and will she please consider my proposal for a national rainwater management strategy?

--- Later in debate ---

[Emma Hardy]

I absolutely hear how angry and disappointed the hon. Gentleman is with the efforts and attainment of his water company. As I have said, water companies are putting more into leakage, but he is right to hold them to account and ensure that they deliver further and faster for his residents. I support him wholeheartedly in doing that. As the Prime Minister has said, this Government will be relentless in giving people and places what they were promised 10 years ago, which is ownership and control. As he said, people were sold the message of taking back control by the very people who gave away everything that was previously owned by the public. This Government are struggling to reverse the legacy of the 1980s, but we are determined to do that, and for our water Bill to right the wrongs that were delivered through Thatcher and the Conservative party.

[Lizzi Collinge (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Lab)]

Not many people know that the Westmorland part of my constituency includes part of the Yorkshire Dales national park, so to see our neighbours in Yorkshire going into drought, and a lot of the rest of the country in severe drought, is very worrying. I welcome the statement about protecting public water supplies. Does the Minister share my disappointment that we continue to see in this House arguments against tackling climate change, which is fundamentally the cause of the drought?

[Emma Hardy]

I could not agree more with my hon. Friend, and it is frankly astonishing when we are seeing the impact of climate change with our own eyes. It is there in front of us. We have had the driest summer in over a century, yet still some people think that climate change is not real. We are going into an El Niño year where there is a higher risk of flooding. We have already talked about the whiplash weather we are experiencing, and I find it unbelievable that people do not think that climate change is a real thing, or that we should be taking action on it. We absolutely need to because it is impacting every one of our constituents in every part of their daily lives. It would frankly be a dereliction of duty if we did not take it seriously, and I am pleased that—thank goodness!—we have a Government who are not a Government of climate deniers, unlike many of the Opposition parties.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

That concludes the statement.