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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment the Department has made of the adequacy of the water supply to support (a) the East Rail project and (b) housing growth before the completion of the new reservoir in Bedfordshire.

Water companies are responsible for securing public water supplies, including supplies that can accommodate planned growth in water demand from both new housing and infrastructure.

Every five years water companies must prepare a water resources management plan (WRMP), and these plans must be maintained. The WRMP sets out how a company intends to achieve a secure supply of water over the next 25 years. The WRMPs published in 2024 set out how water supplies will be maintained over the coming years through demand management, leakage reduction and enhancing water supplies from river and groundwater sources in the time period before new strategic sources of water such as large reservoirs come online.