Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions his Department has had with Ofwat on ensuring water and sewerage companies improve their response to leakages.

I have regular discussions with Ofwat across a range of water policy issues, including leakage.

The Government's Strategic Policy Statement (SPS) to Ofwat, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/661803/sps-ofwat-2017.pdf sets out that we expect companies to cut leakage. The SPS also expects Ofwat to promote ambitious action to reduce leakage and per capita consumption, where this represents best value for money over the long term, including exploring setting targets in future.

Ofwat has already suggested in its draft methodology that it expects companies to justify their proposals against options, including a 15% reduction by 2025, or upper quartile performance on leakage per property per day. The draft methodology can be found at:

https://064f1d25f5a6fb0868ac-0df48efcb31bcf2ed0366d316cab9ab8.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Delivering-Water-2020-Consulting-on-our-PR19-draft-methodology-2.pdf.