Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans her Department has in place for water shortages in the South West; what medium term spending plans her Department has if that shortage takes place; and what the water leakage rate is in that region.

Defra recently published its Plan for Water which set out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply. Water companies have a statutory duty to provide clean and reliable water to customers. To fulfil this duty there are statutory requirements to consult, publish and maintain water resources management plans, to balance water supply and demand at least twenty-five years into the future, and to develop drought plans setting out the actions taken to maintain secure supplies during drought events.

Water companies have been consulting on their draft water resources management plans and consulted on their drought plans in 2021. These plans are available on water company websites.

The Government expects water companies to take action to reduce levels of leakage and has consistently challenged them on their performance. Water companies have committed to a government endorsed target to reduce leakage by 50% sector-wide by 2050. As a first step, Ofwat has set requirements for water companies to cut leaks by 16% and reduce mains bursts by 12% by 2025. In July, Ofwat reported that industry wide leakage has reduced by 11% since 2017-18. In addition, water companies will need to contribute to delivery of Defra’s Water Demand Target under the Environment Act 2021 to reduce the use of public water supply per person in England by 20% by 2038. This includes a 37% reduction in leakage by 2038 on the pathway to meet their 50% reduction in leakage commitment by 2050.

The Environment Agency collects leakage data reported by water companies annually. It is provided by water company area. This means we cannot break down these data into specific regions such as the East and West Midlands. We have collated the data provided by the companies into regions based on their locations and information provided by regional water resources groups for the year 2021 – 2022.