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Source · National Audit Office

Water supply and demand management

This report sets out the challenges facing the water industry in England and assesses how Defra is tackling them.

Published: 25 Mar 2020 Recommendations: 8 Type: Value for Money NAO confirmed: 8 Department: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Dept: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Topics: Business and industryEnergy and environmentEnvironmental sustainabilityRegulation nao.org.uk →

Recommendations

8 items
7 accepted 1 partially accepted 8 implemented

Recommendation 1

Addressee: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs · Source location: Page 12, paragraph 22, point a

Defra should build on the steps it is already taking through the national framework, and:
a) provide guidance for water companies and facilitate sharing of information between them to support them in improving long-term resilience;

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q4 2020-21 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 2

Addressee: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs · Source location: Page 12, paragraph 22, point b

b) fulfil its commitment to set a target for water companies for average personal water consumption;

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q2 2021-22 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 3

Addressee: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs · Source location: Page 12, paragraph 22, point c

c) consider ways of promoting the need for water efficiency more coherently to ensure there is a coordinated and credible message, and develop plans to monitor and evaluate the impact of existing and new awareness-raising activities;

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q2 2021-22 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 4

Addressee: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs · Source location: Page 12, paragraph 22, point d

d) review the business retail market to identify barriers to achieving improvements in water efficiency and how to overcome them;

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q3 2021-22 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 5

Addressee: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs · Source location: Page 13, paragraph 22, point e

e) identify all opportunities to influence and work with other government departments to reduce usage by hospitals, schools and other large public sector users, and influence policies that have an impact on water consumption and long-term resilience; and

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q2 2021-22 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 6

Addressee: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs · Source location: Page 13, paragraph 22, point f

f) provide a stronger steer to Ofwat and the water companies on the expected levels of investment by water companies, informed by better and more consistent evidence on customers’ willingness to pay, commissioning new research, if necessary.

Response position: Partially accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q4 2021-22 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 7

Addressee: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs · Source location: Page 13, paragraph 23, point g

Defra, Ofwat and the EA should:
g) regularly review water companies’ progress during the coming planning cycle on tackling leakage and reducing consumption, and ensure that water companies have robust contingency plans ready if progress is slower than anticipated; and

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q2 2022-23 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 8

Addressee: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs · Source location: Page 13, paragraph 23, point h

h) review the business and resource management planning processes to ensure the need for a long-term strategy and targets does not cause delays to potential improvements in water companies’ performance.

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q2 2022-23 · Confirmed by NAO

Public Accounts Committee follow-up

1 report

The Public Accounts Committee examined this NAO report and published its own recommendations. The government responds to PAC recommendations via Treasury Minutes.