Historic underinvestment, coupled with rising demand from data centres, could leave England with less than a third of the water it needs to build the 1.5 million homes the government has pledged to deliver this parliament.
According to Water UK, which represents firms in the sector, England will only have enough water to provide for 420,000 homes under the current regime, and the Environment Agency (EA) has failed to take into account the additional demand from data centres when planning infrastructure.
Between 2010 and 2024, Ofwat cut water bills by around 20% in real terms in a bid to keep bills below inflation and not add to the cost-of-living crisis. But one of the consequences has been a lack of investment in the water system that has left the country unable to keep up with the pressures of climate change, population growth and new businesses such as data centres.
Data centres currently account for approximately 0.2% of non-household potable water usage in England. While that doesn...