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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps, if any, they intend to take to ensure that water infrastructure has the capacity to withstand periods of drought without requiring hosepipe bans.

Despite the dry summer, water companies in England have assured us that essential water supplies remain resilient across the country. It is their duty to maintain those supplies. Defra ministers expect water company action in accordance with their pre-agreed drought plans. Water companies have taken action to mitigate the effects of this prolonged dry weather using the range of tools available to them, including Temporary Use Bans (aka 'hosepipe bans ').

The Government recognises the need to improve the resilience of our water supplies. The National Framework for Water Resources, published in March 2020, sets out the strategic water needs for England to 2050 and beyond. The Framework sets out how we will reduce demand, halve leakage rates, develop new water supply infrastructure, move water to where itis needed, increase drought resilience of water supplies, and reduce the need for drought measures.

The National Framework takes forward the recommendation from the National Infrastructure Commission on improved drought resilience of public water supplies. The Government is requiring water companies to plan to deliver resilience to a one in 500-year drought, that is not needing to resort to emergency measures, such as stand pipes and rota cuts.

Water companies are using the £469 million made available by Ofwat in the current Price Review period (2019-2024) to progress the infrastructure required to improve the resilience of water supplies. In the Autumn 2022, water companies will publish their statutory draft Water Resources Management Plans for consultation, which set out how they will secure water supplies in the long term.