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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether (a) metered and (b) unmetered households can refuse the installation of a water smart meter.

Smart metering is essential for Government water demand reduction targets. Defra has set out, through its regulators, that it expects water companies to uphold their commitment to halve leakage by 2050, through smart metering as part of the statutory water demand target to reduce demand by 20% by 2038.

Water companies have committed to increase metering to around 70% across household customers by 2040. To enable this, Ofwat has set targets on smart meter delivery through Price Control Deliverables in its Price Review 2024. These set out meter communication, connectivity and data completeness standards. Companies are incentivised to meet this target through non-delivery payments (where customers are reimbursed for failure to deliver commitments).

The Government expects all newly installed meters to be smart; this includes companies running upgrade programmes for those on older meters. These programmes must have customer support and provide value for money before being approved as part of a company’s Water Resource Management Plan.

Companies have social tariff programmes to protect consumers who cannot afford their bills.