Seven more areas classed as seriously water stressed, but still meters must be “justified”

Environment secretary, George Eustice, has designated seven more water company areas as in serious water stress, following a recommendation from the Environment Agency and a March consultation.

Defra has updated the 2013 classifications, with the new designations affecting Severn Trent Water, South Staffordshire Water, Wessex Water, Portsmouth Water, Cambridge Water, the Bournemouth area of South West Water, and the Isles of Scilly. These join seven existing companies in serious water stress: Anglian, Affinity, Essex and Suffolk, South East, SES, Southern and Thames.

The purpose of updating the designations is to inform which water companies must consider new options to balance supply and demand as part of their next Water Resources Management Plans. This includes evaluating the option of compulsory water metering with the aim of reducing demand. However, Eustice said: “The government will make no changes to existing rules around when people can be charged for their water use through water meters.”

He explained: "Water companies in seriously water stressed areas may implement wider water metering programmes where it is shown within their Water Resources Management Plans that there is customer support and it is cost effective to do so. Metering programmes must nevertheless be justified by water companies and achieve customer support. This strikes the right balance between the need to protect water supplies and importance of water companies reducing leakage before expanding the use of water meters. This protects unmetered family homes from unexpected large increases in bills.”