Campaigner warns government plan for water efficiency labels will "create confusion"

A campaigning body for a pan-Europe recognised water efficiency label for all water using products has warned that the government’s recently unveiled plan to introduce a mandatory label in the UK will “create confusion and unnecessary expense”.

The Unified Water Label Association (UWLA) has slammed Defra as “extremely misguided” in its proposal to develop a label. It said it own label “Government is extremely misguided in spending time and money developing a label when there is a recognised and existing scheme developed by the industry, that they could utilise, at much less cost and more effectively.

The UWLA said its scheme is supported by “hundreds of registered brands with thousands of registered products.” UWLA managing director, Yvonne Orgill, said the mandatory label planned by Defra will be a “UK-only label, creating extra administration and expense for many manufacturers that operate across Europe and the UK.”

She went on: “The cost of re-inventing the wheel by developing new technical criteria, testing products and setting up a whole new scheme, when this already exists via the Unified Water Label, is not only expensive for the industry but a waste of public money.

She said the Defra plan “omits any mention of a campaign to influence consumer behaviour, which is essential for any scheme to succeed, and something that the UWLA has been addressing since the scheme’s inception.