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 projected water supply and demand balances in the East of England to 2050; what estimate she has made of a projected water deficit under Water Resources East planning assumptions; and whether her Department has plans to address a deficit through new reservoirs, water transfers, demand management and regulatory reform.

The current Water Resources East plan sets out a series of water company measures, including demand management and leakage reduction interventions, new strategic reservoirs in Lincolnshire and the Fens, coastal desalination in Norfolk and Lincolnshire, and water recycling plants, in Suffolk and Essex.