The heads of Ofwat have admitted the proposed £100 million water efficiency fund for PR24 will “absolutely” not be sufficient to drive behavioural change.
Chair Iain Coucher and chief executive David Black appeared before a parliamentary Public Accounts Committee to discuss the regulator’s work to address resilience of supplies.
Both Coucher and Black acknowledged the fund, which was mooted for inclusion at PR24 to drive significant change in consumption habits, would not be enough to futureproof supplies.
“Resilient water resources are vital, we are seeing a huge step forward in investment,” Black said. “But the problem isn’t investment, it’s getting major infrastructure projects from conception to being built.”
He said Ofwat, together with other stakeholders, is working to make the planning process smooth and ensure an evidence base is in place to ensure projects are approved.
He added that these schemes will increase at the next price review from 2025 and future periods.
Through the Regulators Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Developments (RAPID) scheme, major projects to move water supplies around the country are being developed.
There are a mixture of water transfer schemes, as well as reuse and reservoirs outlaid in PR24 proposals that are going through the RAPID process.
Black said it was “vital” these went ahead and something Ofwat would continue to push for.
Coucher pointed to Anglian Water’s work in Newmarket as a successful demand management project with customers driving consumption down well below 100 litres daily.
He said this work to understand effective ways to lower usage and how much it costs indicated the need for a sustained campaign to make sure behaviour does not revert to using more water.
In England and Wales the average amount of water used per person daily is 140 litres. This is below the highest European consumption of 300 litres daily in Switzerland, but well above Slovakia’s average of 78 litres per capita daily.
Progress to lower usage has stagnated despite performance incentives for water companies to help consumers use less. At PR19 each firm was set a target per capita consumption (PCC), which Ofwat’s latest performance review showed no company had met.