Surviving Drought (Environment and Climate Change Committee Report)

Lord Trees Excerpts

Wednesday 11th November 2026 Grand Committee

[Lord Trees (CB)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to serve on this committee under the excellent chairmanship of the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan, and the wonderful support of all the staff that we have.

At the end of October, the major part of England was officially in drought or severe drought, and much of England had severe drought in 2025, but the paradox is that the UK currently experiences 10% more rainfall than it did in 1970. Our failure has been not to adequately value our water and not to ensure appropriate capture for storage and usage. One serious consequence has been that the Government have now had to commit to fast-tracking nine new reservoirs by 2050, which will be a serious challenge.

In the time I have I want to focus on two issues: namely, the provision of adequate water for farming and food production, and consideration of how we might reduce domestic usage of potable water. I have not connived with the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, who chose to highlight similar things.

A recommendation in our committee report was for the need to prioritise water supplies in the event of drought, and I suggest that the production of food should be a national priority to support food security. Can the Minister assure us that His Majesty’s Government have determined or are determining priorities for water usage in the event of shortages, and that agriculture is one of those priorities?

I acknowledge that there are difficulties in formulating an overall drought planning policy for farming because of the diversity and highly disaggregated nature of the industry. However, I note that Defra is considering where responsibility for this might lie, so can the Minister indicate whether any progress has been made in this respect?

Not only is water essential on our land for food production, but a multiplicity of on-farm water storage sites would assist in the control of the increasing incidence of wildfires and the consequential huge damage they do to nature habitats and biodiversity. Improving the link and extending the licence terms for water abstraction would facilitate the topping up of existing farm reservoirs during high winter precipitation and de-risk the investment for new on-farm reservoir building.

Although many farmers have managed to create small reservoirs, they are inhibited by planning and other regulatory complexities as well as capital costs. Water management grant funding has been extremely welcome to aid the construction of small reservoirs, but will His Majesty’s Government consider another round of such grant funding, and will they plan to simplify and accelerate the planning and regulatory processes around building more on-farm reservoirs?

My other major point is on the domestic use of water. Over 90% of the total consumption of water is through the public water supply, of which the major part, 59%, is for household use. So, to reduce overall water usage, it makes sense to tackle this major source of use. Currently, we expend much effort and money on collecting and purifying water to drinking standards, and we then use it to flush the lavatory, wash clothes, water the garden and wash the car, and for a variety of other uses. This may consume 45% to 50% of the total household potable water demand.

Current per capita consumption, as we have heard, is over 130 litres per person per day. But Part G of the building regulations requires a dwelling not to use more than 125 litres per person per day, a regulation of which I—like most people, I am sure—was totally unaware. His Majesty’s Government consulted on these regulations in September 2025, as several noble Lords have mentioned, and are still considering a response. When are the results of this consultation due to be published?

The consultation also called for evidence on water reuse in new developments. It has been estimated that harvested rainwater could reduce potable water consumption from current levels to perhaps 80 litres per person per day. We heard evidence from the Good Homes Alliance that distinguishing between potable water consumption and total use in water consumption would be and should be a policy priority to aid in promoting a separation of these resources. It took years before we saw solar panels routinely integrated into the roofs of new buildings. With regard to water, while retrofitting existing buildings with means to separate the source and use of rainfall and grey water from potable supplies is likely to be extremely expensive, what are we doing to develop, encourage and incentivise this installation in new builds? This is not an immediate solution, but in the medium term it could be a game-changer in water conservation. Are the Government considering this approach?

Similar opportunities apply to non-domestic uses, where the use of potable public supply is relatively cheap, providing no incentive for industry to use non-potable sources. Discounted rates have even been provided for higher water users. At a time when there can be water shortages, this is an obvious own goal. Has this practice been discontinued? I know that we in this country are terribly slow at capital innovations, but after all, the Romans were harvesting rainwater in the home 2,000 years ago.