The research warns recent reductions to water bills may be counteracted by mounting costs of dealing with long-term water shortages, with water companies forced to build expensive infrastructure in response to increasing pressure on water supply.
Green Alliance recommends combining water efficiency with existing energy efficiency programmes, such as the Green Deal and ECO, and calls for better use of the consumer water label.
Sue Armstrong Brown, policy director of Green Alliance, said: “To make water efficiency a permanent solution we can learn much from the energy sector where a stop-start approach to efficiency incentives has slowed the development of a ‘savings’ market.”
Average water use in the UK is 50 per cent higher than in some countries in northern Europe, at 150 litres per person per day.
The report recommends water use is cut by 42 litres per property per day to save an average metered household £78 per year across their water and energy bills.
In an effort to help preserve water, South East Water plans to build an extension, costing £127 million, to its Arlington Reservoir in East Sussex and a new reservoir, costing £77 million, at Broad Oak near Canterbury.