Water

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered at on 14 September 2018.

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Photo of Justin Madders Justin Madders Shadow Minister (Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) (Labour), Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will estimate how much water was lost due to leaks in each of the last ten years for which figures are available.

Photo of Therese Coffey Therese Coffey The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The total amount of water leaked from water companies’ supply networks in each of the last ten years are shown in the following table. This information is based on Environment Agency analysis of data from water companies that operate wholly or mainly in England. Recent leakage figures are available on Discover Water: https://discoverwater.co.uk/leaking-pipes.

Year

Total leakage

(Millions of litres / day)

2008-09

3088

2009-10

3084

2010-11

3156

2011-12

2949

2012-13

2963

2013-14

2916

2014-15

2942

2015-16

2896

2016-17

2918

2017-18

2986

The Secretary of State for the Environment in July called in water company Chief Executives who did not meet their leakage targets this year to explain this failure and what actions they were taking to improve their performance, particularly in light of the dry weather. They committed to tackle leakage as a priority.

The 25 year environment plan sets out the Government’s ambitions for reducing demand on water resources. This includes support for Ofwat’s target for water companies to reduce leakage by 15% by 2025.

In their draft Business Plans water companies have proposed an average reduction of 16% by 2025. It is now for Ofwat to scrutinise these plans.

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