Defra’s call for evidence on per capita consumption scheduled for May

The government has announced May as the month it will kick off its work on setting a per capita consumption (PCC) target.

Water minister, Therese Coffey (pictured), said in parliament last week that the government will issue a call for evidence on an “ambitious” target for per capita consumption next month. The work has been awaited since late last year when the government published a report on water conservation.

In related news, the water industry's Water Efficiency Collaborative Fund and Waterwise have commissioned an extension to the 2018 independent review of the costs and benefits of water labelling. Waterwise said that as well as delving more deeply into water labelling options, the new work will model the water, energy, carbon and finance costs and benefits of moving to tighter water efficiency standards in Building Regulations (110 litres per person per day, 100 litres and 80 litres) and of tougher standards for water fittings in existing housing stock.

The 2018 water labelling review, conducted by the Energy Saving Trust, recommended the government implement a mandatory water labelling scheme linked to Building Regulations and minimum standards. This offered the best cost benefit ratio (1:200) of the seven options considered.