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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what reduction in household water consumption South Staffs Water is required to achieve through universal metering; what the evidential basis is for the conclusion that moving an unmetered household to metered charging reduces demand by approximately 13%; and whether she plans to take steps to ensure the company will be required to publish actual consumption reductions separately from savings attributed to the detection of customer-side leaks.

South Staffs Water's metering programme forms part of its wider demand management activities. Ofwat's PR24 framework sets expectations for demand reduction and monitors delivery against company commitments through its regulatory performance framework.