Headline regional ambitions
Water resources
Reducing the per capita consumption of water by 20 per cent by 2030 would support the RES ambitions on GVA, housing and employment.
Water is a vital economic input: neither industry nor domestic households can function without it. Unlike electricity, there is no national grid in water supply and both the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' (DEFRA) national strategy for England, Future Water, and the Environment Agency’s consultation document, Water for People and the Environment, ruled out such a network over the lifetime of this strategy. The region’s water resources will need to sustain the coming increase in housing and population, yet the East of England is the country’s driest region and water resources in some local areas are already over-committed. Even with the new resources and infrastructure currently planned by water companies, the housing supply targets in the East of England Plan, if achieved and rolled forward to 2031, could lead to a deficit by the early 2030s in the absence of further action. Without greater levels of water efficiency, individual water-resource zones could be in deficit as early as 2015, with the greatest stress in the South of the region.xxiv, xxv
The centrality of water to future physical development and the challenge of water-stress demands a headline regional ambition to achieve greater efficiency in our use of water. Research suggests that, if economic and population growth placed no additional demands on the water supply over the RES period, deficits could be avoided. To achieve this, per capita consumption in existing houses would need to fall steadily from around 150 l/h/d today to at least 130 l/h/d by 2041.xxvi, xxvii
Future Water sets a more ambitious target to achieve 120-130 l/h/d by 2030. In addition to addressing future stress on water availability, this will also benefit business and the environment: tackling over-abstraction will benefit the ecology of rivers and wetlands, supporting tourism and fisheries. Given the unique challenges in this region, the RES sets the ambition to achieve 120 l/h/d per capita by 2030 (see Figure 12).xxviii This will require incorporating high, water-efficient standards into future development, reducing leakage rates, increasing the efficiency of existing buildings and behavioural change in how we use water in our homes.
- xxiv Based on research undertaken by the Environment Agency using the COPS model (February 2008). In this ‘deficit’ scenario the water-supply would still outstrip projected demand but be below the target headroom that needs to be maintained for contingencies.
- xxv Water resource zones represent the level at which water is supplied (sub-regional, water company areas).
- xxvi RSS14 Housing and Water Efficiency Scenarios, Environment Agency, Water Resources Planning (February 2008).
- xxvii Litres per head per day.
- xxviii The RES water target of 120 l/h/d relates to all housing and includes water used both internally and externally. It is consistent with the ambition in the East of England Plan to reduce internal water consumption in metered new-build properties to 105 l/h/d (Level 3 of the Code for Sustainable Homes). Making allowance for external use results in a per capita consumption target for new-build housing of 115 l/h/d. These targets are illustrated in Figure 12.
