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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she is taking steps to encourage the building of new reservoirs.

The Strategic Policy Statement for Ofwat sets out the Government’s commitment to improve the resilience of water supplies in England. This requires water companies to take a twin track approach of increasing water supplies, such as building new reservoirs, and reducing demand for water, including leakage reduction.

Water companies are investing £469 million in the current price review period (2020-2025) to investigate the strategic water supply infrastructure required to improve water supply resilience in England. Water companies are now consulting on their statutory draft water resources management plans, which set out in detail the new water supply and demand management measures needed to secure supplies in the long term.