Yorkshire: Sustainable Water Management Solutions

Duke of Wellington Excerpts

Wednesday 28th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

As I mentioned in response to the earlier question, we know that natural flood management attracts contributions from partners, including private partners, and that is something we must do. As the noble Baroness has just said, flooding has a big impact on climate change. We are not going to solve this unless we bring everyone together—the Government, infrastructure developers, the private sector and so on.

[The Duke of Wellington (CB)]

My Lords, the Question refers to water management, particularly in relation to protracted droughts. Does the Minister agree that one of the problems is the huge amount of water—billions of litres every year—that is lost from the system through leakage? Leakage is mentioned in the White Paper, but does the Minister agree that greater priority must be attached to reducing water leakage in our system? In a period when there are great difficulties with water production, we must prevent the current high rate of leakage.

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

Absolutely, and that is why Defra’s strategic policy statement sets out that we expect Ofwat to challenge water companies to halve leakage across the industry by 2050. We also want more investment, because that will also help to solve the leakage problem. Alongside that, we are working to ensure the rollout of 10.4 million smart meters over the price review period 2025-30. If that is successful, it is likely to lead to better detection of leakage across England and Wales so that we can better target where the leaks are.