Putting water neutrality back on the agenda

The concept of water neutrality was in vogue around 10 years ago but it fell off the radar for many, despite its clear benefits. Now, Waterwise is working to get the conversation re-focussed on how homes can be built with minimum impact in waterstressed areas.

Conversations around water neutrality for new housing stock stalled in recent years, but Waterwise has kickstarted the debate again with a series of recommendations for policy makers and housing developers.

The Environment Agency recently proposed re-classifying another seven areas of England as water-stressed, meaning 14 regions would be designated as ‘seriously’ water-stressed. Waterwise is calling for housing developments in such areas to be built in as efficient way as possible to minimise the impact on already stretched resources.

“We need to show national leadership on water efficiency and lay out a clear vision for citizens. We are sleep walking into a water crisis and the Environment Agency is looking at rezoning areas of water stress to reflect this serious situation, which looks like nearly the whole of England will qualify,” said Ben Earl, director of sustainability and water efficiency at Skewb, on the urgency of the situation.

“We’ve got this slow car crash coming towards us of water shortages which a whole host of different individuals and organisations keep warning about, however we are still awaiting the results of the 2019 water efficiency consultation from government which we are all hoping will clearly lay out the policies needed to take effective action.”

Waterwise created a report with four key proposals for planning and policy makers as well as developers to collaborate and consider the pressure new homes put on networks.

The recommendations are:

• The National Planning Policy Framework should require the consideration of water neutrality in areas with constrained water resources, similar to flood risk “neutrality”.
• Local planning policies should require developers to work with the local water company on proposals to minimise the water demand impact for new developments over a threshold size and target water neutrality.
• Engagement between developers, water companies, and local authorities should happen at a very early planning stage to discuss water resources and the potential for a development to be water neutral.
• There is the opportunity to demonstrate the concept in practice on new developments, such as in the OxCam Arc.

The group admits that the same barriers that existed a decade ago remain unresolved, particularly around funding. Waterwise’s Nathan Richardson, head of policy and strategy along with Lydia Makin, policy and projects manager, talked to Utility Week about these obstacles.

“The main issue is the funding model and there are still the same problems that were talked about ten years ago,” Makin explained. “Developers don’t want to develop new buildings that are water neutral because of the cost of doing so. It would mean building a water efficient home with a water re-use element to make the footprint as low as possible, then also paying to retrofit existing buildings nearby to offset the extra use.”

Waterwise estimated some costs in the report that suggested a need to retrofit between five and eight existing houses to offset every new build property.

“The debate is over where that cost would fall – developers don’t want to pay that, should it be paid by water companies or a local authority helping to facilitate – the funding model hasn’t been cracked yet,” Makin said.

The main benefit of water neutrality goes to the water company, but to achieve it requires partnership with developers and local authorities. Looking at all three parties, many water companies have relatively small efficiency teams to carry out the ongoing planning and monitoring of work.

The developer may not have the long-term interest in the area after it has completed work on the scheme. The planning authorities are under pressure to deliver on government targets and again, lack the resources.

Another barrier is coordinating the needs and communicating between these disparate parties to manage the process in detail from planning through to construction and completion to ensure the homes meet the specifications.

Makin and Richardson said the first step towards water neutrality becoming a reality is to address policy that has created a per capita consumption “ceiling of 110 litres”.

Richardson said: “We responded to the National Planning Policy Framework in March asking the government to be more supportive and explicit to say that those technical standards are the minimal expectations not the ceiling for ambition, without it a developer can appeal against a local authority if they are pushed to go further. They are meeting the technical standard so how can they be asked to do more.”

Waterwise believes this change at the top level would filter through but is wary that change could happen too slow if ambition is not shown here.

Although the team admit it is quite early on in terms of talking about policy change, they cite policy frameworks relating to biodiversity net gain, flooding, carbon neutrality that could potentially be drawn on or learnt from as blueprints for the future.

However, a successful pilot is required first. Several companies have shown an interest and examples in the non-household sector have included Sainsbury’s working with Waterscan to build flagship neutral sites but nothing at scale has been seen in the UK.

Earl added: “Despite previous studies that have outlined the benefits and the individual commitment of one or two high street retailers on individual developments, the concept is yet to be demonstrated at significant scale. It has been important to help fund this new study by Waterwise and now the focus is turning from the theory to the practice. Affinity Water for example is exploring how water neutrality can be a key target in future plans, particularly associated with the delivery of new garden towns within its water supply area.”

Waterwise is hosting a webinar on 20 May to bring together organisations to find a way forward through the obstacles and address how necessary new homes can be created without exacerbating the pressure water networks are already under.