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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the impact of (a) current demand reduction assumptions in water resource planning and (b) the proportion of projected savings by 2050 not tied to specific (i) policies and (ii) delivery mechanisms on delivery risk.

The Environment Agency’s National Framework for Water Resources estimates a shortfall of nearly 5 billion litres of water per day by 2050 between available supply and expected demand. Government has a statutory target to reduce water use in England per head by 20% by 2038, and is committed to a twin track approach to improving water resilience. This involves urgent action to improve water efficiency and reduce water company leaks, alongside investing in new supply infrastructure, including new reservoirs and water transfers.

Water companies have a statutory duty to provide a secure supply of water for customers, efficiently and economically and to set out how they plan to continue to supply water to their customers for the next 25 years through statutory Water Resources Management Plans (WRMPs). Defra works with regulators to closely monitor WRMP delivery through annual reviews.