MPs call for action over water metering

Current plans to reform the regime for taking water from rivers by the mid to late 2020s will not take effect swiftly enough given that rivers are already running dry, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee said.

The committee’s report into the Government’s plans for conserving scarcer water resources in the face of climate change and population growth, outlined in the Water White Paper, warned more urgent action is needed by Ministers.

The report comes in the wake of drought and floods, with two unusually dry winters in a row leaving parts of England parched before three months of record-breaking rainfall caused flooding across much of the country.

Clear targets are needed to increase metering levels as the most effective way to improve more efficient use of water by households, the report said.

Around 40 per cent of homes in England and Wales are metered, which means more than half the population has no connection between the amount of water they use and the size of their bills.

The report said it was “extremely disappointing” that the Water White Paper did not have targets for meter coverage.

It called for a clear, ambitious target to increase metering, pointing to the recommendation in a key review which called for 80 per cent of households to have meters by 2020.

Water companies and the regulator also need to do more to reduce the amount wasted through leaks.

The committee’s chairwoman Anne McIntosh, MP for Thirsk and Malton, said the MPs had heard “persuasive evidence”, during hearings on the Government’s Water White Paper, about the environmental damage unleashed by over-abstraction from rivers.