A ‘Blue Deal’, involving large-scale water efficiency retrofits would reduce the carbon impact of households, as well as reducing both water and energy bills, Tompkins told Utility Week.
“Water companies could put up prices and at the same time bring bills down by helping people with water efficiency,” he said.
The Green Deal costs thousands of pounds per household but Tompkins said the water equivalent would cost just £50.
“A shower head, some tap inserts, that’s the cost of the kit. Compared to the Green Deal, it is really, really small beer,” he said.
He added: “Water retrofits would do as much for energy as the Green Deal and it would hit hard to reach homes.”
Tompkins also claimed the Blue Deal could be offered for free from water companies.
“You don’t need to develop new resources. So instead of a supply side option you go for a demand option and you do hundreds of thousands of home retrofits, which helps with customer water bills, energy bills.
“From a water company perspective if you do it to scale, it is better than building a new reservoir because when you build a new reservoir you have a single asset which is vulnerable to climate change” he said.
Tompkins added that the introduction of totex in PR14 could incentivise water companies to invest in water efficiency.