NIC calls for collective push to drive down water consumption

Government, regulators and industry must build on their recently transformed collaboration to deliver a strategy for reducing per capita water consumption, according to the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC).

In its annual progress report, published today (17 February), the government’s statutory infrastructure advisor says the water industry’s ability to plan long term has been “transformed” since its National Infrastructure Assessment (NIA) in 2018.

The NIC welcomes the setting of clear targets to increase drought resilience and reduce demand, a national framework and regional planning for the next round of investment plans and additional flood defences investment.

The report says that the industry is “rising to the challenge” on reducing leaks and welcomes water companies’ investment plans in water transfer projects and reservoirs.

However, it says the remaining third of the projected 4,000 million litres per day deficit, identified in the NIA, must be dealt with via reductions to the amount of water consumed.

The government has not yet set out steps to achieve “significant” reductions in per capita consumption, including whether it endorses the NIC’s recommendation for greater use of compulsory metering, the report says.

Progress in the rest of the industry must be matched by a strategy to deliver a reduction in per capita demand for water, says the NIC.

The NIC welcomes the overall commitments by the government on decarbonisation over the past year, which has seen the publication of both the long-awaited energy white paper and National Infrastructure Strategy, but says detailed plans are now needed.

“Where government has committed to solutions and announced funding, such as on energy efficiency, attention should now be turned to deployment.”

It says “good progress” has been made on delivering the commission’s recommendations on energy but that momentum gained in 2020 must be maintained for “years and decades” ahead.

“Whilst government has made great progress in the last year it is important that focus on delivery is maintained to ensure the gap to 65 per cent renewables is filled.”

It welcomes the position on the role of nuclear in the electricity mix set out in the white paper. The goal in this document to bring at least one large scale nuclear project to Final Investment Decision by the end of this Parliament is in line with the ‘one by one’ approach advocated by the commission in the NIA, it says: “The government’s position is pragmatic and will maintain optionality for the future whilst allowing the necessary near term action on renewables to be taken.”

It says the upcoming Heat and Buildings strategy offers an opportunity to set clear goals for improving energy efficiency.

The report also calls for “concerted action” over the next five years to quickly scale up the electric vehicle charge point network to meet emerging demand, including more detailed plans and clear milestones for their rollout.

Sir John Armitt, chair of the NIC, writes in his foreword to the report: “We anticipate that publication of the National Infrastructure Strategy will catalyse decision making and investment across all sectors, helping to address the challenges of levelling up the UK’s economic geography and achieving net zero. Infrastructure can also help create the conditions for a market led recovery from the major economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“But achieving this will require detailed planning, and delivery roadmaps backed up by stable funding plans and, where relevant, clarity of regulatory oversight. These are critical factors for the successful delivery of the policy aspirations and targets government has now provided.

“2020’s policy statements set the bar high: 2021 must be a year of turning policy goals into delivery.”