Conclusion 5

The Department has not demonstrated sufficient leadership to drive forward the implementation of product labelling, changes to building regulations and other measures that can make a major contribution to improving water efficiency. Water companies and other industry stakeholders have been calling for mandatory water efficiency labelling on domestic products such as washing machines and dishwashers in the UK for some time. An efficiency standard that all new homes Water supply and demand management 7 must be built to a standard water usage of 125 litres of water per person per day was added to the building regulations in 2015. The government’s 2019 Spring Statement made a commitment to future-proofing new-build homes with low-carbon heating and world-leading levels of energy efficiency. However, no pledges were made on water efficiency, which demonstrates the lack of importance government has attached to this issue, and government’s inability to mobilise and coordinate cross- departmental efforts to meet water efficiency objectives. In July 2019, the Department ran a consultation on further measures to reduce personal water consumption, which included questions covering water efficiency labelling. The Department tells us that it will respond to the consultation soon but will not commit to any specific date. We acknowledge that the Department needs to work with other departments on these policy areas but it clearly needs to be more influential in ensuring that water efficiency is a priority across government in the same way as energy efficiency. Recommendation: The Department should write to us within four months, setting out a timetable for when it expects to implement product labelling and any other changes, including to building regulations, designed to improve water efficiency.