Monthly Archives: March 2026

Water underpins food production, public health and wellbeing, wildlife, and our economy. Yet for most of us, turning on the tap hides the complex systems, infrastructure and governance required to keep supplies safe and reliable. Securing clean and plentiful water depends on coordinated action across communities, water companies, businesses, government, councils, and regulators. In January 2026, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) published its Water White Paper, setting out proposals to “overhaul the water system in England and Wales” in response to mounting pressures on water quality, supply and environmental health. The scale of the challenge is significant: by 2050, England is projected to face a daily shortfall of nearly five billion litres of water.  Against this backdrop, the central question is whether the Water White Paper – and wider government initiatives – will be sufficient to address these pressures. Jessica Sellick investigates.  

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Back in April 2023, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) published ‘plan for water’, a policy paper setting out an integrated national strategy to improve water quality, enhance water resilience, and restore the health of rivers, lakes, and wetlands across England. The plan brought together regulatory reform, investment commitments, and measures to address pollution from all major sources. It also carried significant implications for agriculture and rural communities, recognising that farming both contributes to water pressures and plays a critical role in delivering solutions, while emphasising the need to protect the environmental assets that underpin rural economies.  

In December 2024, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA) launched an inquiry on ‘Reforming the Water Sector’ to examine the full range of challenges facing the sector. The Committee’s second report, published in June 2025, highlighted the scale of change required to secure long-term water security and environmental recovery. While the EFRA Committee’s work is ongoing, in January 2026, Defra published the Water White Paper, which sets out proposals for a new single water regulator that will introduce an ‘MOT’ approach for water company infrastructure, require companies to plan for the long-term, and rollout smart metering and mandatory efficiency labels on household items. Ultimately, the Water White Paper aims to prioritise pre-pipe solutions that tackle the root causes of pollution through sustainable drainage, rainwater management, and reducing sewer misuse.  

If rural communities and businesses are essential partners in delivering long-term water security and should expect reliable, high-quality services, the central questions now are: how much water will be required, and will the Water White Paper reform the water sector sufficiently to ensure it is available?   

How much water do we need – and where does it come from?  

Water supply is drawn from three main sources: surface water (rivers, lakes and reservoirs), groundwater (held in aquifers) and non-traditional sources (e.g. recycled water, rainwater harvesting).  

In England, in relation to public water supply, 25 water companies collectively supply 58.8 million people, delivering around 13.9 billion litres per day through an extensive network of 3,632 service reservoirs, 998 treatment works and 321,866 kilometres of mains pipe. This system is fed by 1,144 surface water sources, 1,009 groundwater sources, and 347 mixed-source supplies. (A full list of suppliers is available online here).   

The Environment Agency estimates that the average person in England used 136.5 litres of water per day in 2024-2025, down from the 140 litres per day in 2019-2020. Typical household uses include toilet flushing (4-6 litres for dual flush, up to 13 litres per flush for older models), showering (10-15 litres), bathing (80 litres), washing machines (35-50 litres per load), dishwashers (10-14 litres) and washing up (around 9 litres). In 2024-2025, water companies extracted 14,636 million litres of water per day (Ml/d), a slight reduction from 14,664 Ml/d the previous year, and down from 15,012 Ml/d in 2005. These figures illustrate a gradual downward trend in overall abstraction despite population growth.  

According to the Environment Agency’s analysis of England’s revised draft regional and water resource management plans, total public water demand is around 10,000–10,500 million litres per day (Ml/d), with households accounting for 8,000–8,500 Ml/d and non‑household sectors using 1,500–1,700 Ml/d. Agriculture currently uses 150–200 million litres per day, with demand expected to rise by up to 50% by 2050 as hotter, drier summers increase irrigation needs.  

While national figures exist for total abstraction, household consumption and non-household use; much of the detailed data remains dispersed across individual water companies’ Water Resource Management Plans (WRMPs), technical annexes and supporting spreadsheets, rather than being presented in a single dataset. The Environment Agency also publishes national datasets on bathing water, storm overflows, catchments, hydrology and water quality through its public data portal. However, the absence of a single consolidated dataset makes it difficult to build a complete national picture.  

For private water supplies, the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) reports that 34,904 supplies serve 956,429 people across 207 local authority areas. Private supplies include any water source not provided by a water company but intended for human consumption or for any food (e.g. a spring collection chamber or borehole). These figures only reflect supplies known to local authorities; there is no requirement for private supply owners to register themselves. As a result, the true number of private supplies is likely to be higher.  

Why is water reform on the agenda?  

The Water White Paper notes that ‘for too long changes to the water system have been piecemeal or disjointed, pulling regulators and companies in different directions – not delivering better outcomes, but adding to regulatory complexity and burden’. Against this backdrop, it is important to understand the challenges, opportunities and trade-offs driving the need for a more strategic, long-term, and outcomes-focused system.  

Water security: 

Back in 2020, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) warned of a “serious risk that some parts of the country will run out of water within the next 20 years…the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, the Environment Agency and Ofwat – have collectively taken their eye off the ball and urgent action is now required if we are to have a reliable water supply in the years ahead”. The Environment Agency has emphasised the scale of the challenge. In June 2025, it published a National Framework for Water Resources 2025, building on the first-ever framework (2020) and subsequent Water Resources Management Plans (WRMPs) and Regional Water Resources Plans (RWRPs). The Framework sets out the actions needed to meet long-term water needs, including reducing Per Capita Consumption (PCC), the volume of water used by individual customers, to 110 litres per person per day by 2050. It also estimates that by 2050 England could face a shortfall of nearly 5 billion litres of water per day, equivalent to more than a third of today’s public water supply. These deficits will not be evenly distributed, with some regions expected to experience reduced rainfall and others limited storage capacity or faster population growth. Taken together, these projections underline the urgency of long-term planning.  

Weather driven and climate related risks:  

Climate change is projected to impact both present and future sources of water in England, increasing water scarcity – with the UK Water Industry Research group (UKWIR) indicating that unconstrained demand for water increases by 20% or more when temperatures exceed 26°C. In June 2025, the Met Office reported that all four nations had experienced their warmest spring for mean temperature since records began in 1884. Environment Agency analysis of the 2025 drought reveals how the 18 months leading up to December 2024 were the wettest on record for England, but from mid-February 2025 onwards the weather turned settled and dry (with summer temperatures 1.69°C above the long-term average). By September 2025, 15 key reservoirs were below 50% full, and 46 drought permits were granted to water companies, allowing them to take more water from the environment. Research by the Met Office, University of Reading and University of Leeds warns that the number of extremely hot days in the UK could increase four-fold: days exceeding 25.0°C could rise from around 10 days a year now (range 8-11 days) to 37 days (range 32-46 days) with a 4.0°C rise in global warming.  

The Environment Agency publishes monthly situation reports and weekly rainfall and river flow reports for England.  The Met Office reports that January 2026 was exceptionally wet in Southwest England, eastern Scotland and Northern Ireland, with Cornwall and County Down recording their wettest January on record. In February 2026, more than 300 properties in Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall were flooded. The Environment Agency continues to publish real-time flood warnings, alerts, and five-day forecasts. The Environment Agency has estimated that by 2050, one in four properties in England could be at risk from flooding. These patterns highlight the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events.  

In 2026, the Environment Agency will be producing a new Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) setting out a revised assessment of climate change risks to water.  

Population growth and development pressures:  

Forecasts suggest the population in England will rise to over 71 million people by 2055 – with the Environment Agency estimating this will contribute up to 1,180 million litres per day (Ml/d) to the supply-demand deficit. The Government has set itself a target to build 1.5 million homes over the current parliament. This builds on updates to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in December 2024 which restored and raised mandatory housing targets for councils. The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has drawn attention to the slow process for obtaining new drainage connections and limited capacity in existing water company networks, meaning we are lacking the supporting infrastructure needed to deliver new homes. Similarly, the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) has published research which estimates water scarcity could cost the UK economy £25 billion over the course of parliament due to 61,600 homes not being built.  

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) recently closed a consultation on making further updates to the NPPF, seeking views on data centres and onsite energy generation, reforming site thresholds, and standardised inputs in viability assessments – this is part of attempts to accelerate the construction of new data centres co-located near energy sites by creating a single planning route for approvals. These proposals reflect the growing challenge of balancing development needs with water availability and infrastructure capacity.  

On the one hand, the Environment Agency has projected that the number of properties at risk from flooding would rise if more homes were built on floodplains – and yet in some parts of the country, more than 10% of new homes are being built in flood-prone zones. This creates a tension between housing delivery and long-term resilience.  

Ageing and inadequate infrastructure:   

A significant proportion of water assets are old, fragile or leaking, requiring major modernisation to reduce losses and support future needs: 60% of water mains were built before 1981 and 13% are over 100 years old. Prior to water being put into supply, water may be lost when it is transported as raw water to a treatment works, within the treatment works itself and where water is used during the treatment process. In 2023-2024, a total of 433 million litres per day (Ml/d) or 3% of water abstracted was reported as lost – a reduction of 13.5% from around 500 Ml/d during 2022-2023. Despite this improvement, the scale of ageing infrastructure remains a significant constraint on performance.  

Environmental decline and ecological stress:  

The Environment Agency publishes statistics on the state of the water environment which includes assessments of ecological, chemical and sewage pollution and harmful exposure of wildlife to it – according to this data, as of May 2025, only 14% of rivers, 14% of lakes,19% of estuaries and 45% of coastal waters in England were assessed as achieving good ecological status.  Abstraction licensing data shows that many catchments in England are already classified as ‘over-abstracted’, ‘over-licensed’ or having ‘no water available’. Indeed, RiverAction UK estimates that by 2050, river flows could drop by up to 80%, while other organisations have highlighted the impact of water scarcity already on wildlife and watercourses. These indicators point to a system under sustained ecological pressure, with limited capacity to absorb further demand.  

Since 2009, water companies in England have been permitted to carry out much of their own pollution monitoring, a shift intended to reduce regulatory burdens on the Environment Agency. However, this system relies heavily on self‑reporting, and campaigners and regulators have raised concerns about under‑reporting and inconsistent data quality. For example, each water company publishes Event Duration Monitoring (EDM), and while this has expanded significantly in recent years, they are not required to have 100% monitoring of storm overflows in place until 2035. Current EDM technology records how long sewage discharges occur, but not the volume released, meaning the true scale of untreated sewage entering rivers and coastal waters remains unknown. Under Defra’s Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, water companies are not required to eliminate the routine use of untreated sewage discharges until 2050, with some high‑priority sites scheduled for earlier action.  

Public dissatisfaction:  

Concerns about service failures, rising bills, and company behaviour have increased pressure for greater accountability and reform. In particular, water company performance has come under increasing scrutiny – with their profits, dividend payments, debt payments and use of storm overflows to discharge sewage all leading to debates around whether the sector is adequately serving customers and protecting the environment. 

In England and Wales, the water industry was privatised in 1989 and water supply is delivered by private water companies; whereas in Scotland and Northern Ireland, publicly owned water companies are responsible for the water supply.  

In 2023, Ofwat published guidance to prevent the payment of dividends and executive pay, and the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 includes provisions to block bonuses for water company executives, bring criminal charges against those who break environmental laws, and impose automatic penalties for environmental pollution. In November 2025, Ofwat published its performance related pay report, which showed £4 million of bonuses were blocked in the first year since the introduction of these new rules.   

In England and Wales, water bills have risen since privatisation – with an average annual combined bill for water and sewerage for households in England and Wales of £639.  Water bills in all parts of the UK rose between 4.7% and 8.8% for the billing year 2024-2025. The Consumer Council for Water’s (CCW) Water Matters survey points to growing perceptions of unfairness over what people are being asked to pay for services. In the last survey (published in May 2025), just 53% of households felt what they were being charged was fair, falling for a third successive year to reach an all-time low (down 2% on the previous year). More recently, in March 2026, the EFRA Select Committee published data from 11 water companies showing widespread use of bailiffs to collect unpaid water bills, peaking in 2023-2024. The data shows the most significant users of bailiffs between 2019 and 2025 were United Utilities, Yorkshire Water, Southern Water, South West Water/Pennon and Northumbrian Water whereas Wessex Water has not used bailiffs over the last 10 years. 

In England and Wales, the prices that water companies charge customers in bills are set by Ofwat, following a five-yearly process called the price review. During the price review, Ofwat sets wholesale price limits for each water company alongside performance targets such as leakage reduction, reducing pollution incidents and lowering personal water consumption. In doing this Ofwat must balance the interests of customers for lower prices with the need to ensure water companies can finance their operations and meet their environmental responsibilities. The most recent price review was completed in 2024 and sets prices from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2030. PR24 is expected to result in an average annual customer bill rise of £19 and £88 billion of investment by industry over this period. Water UK (an industry body for water companies) has suggested that Ofwat has not been realistic about the levels of investment needed and what it will take to deliver and maintain necessary infrastructure in making these determinations. This debate reflects wider tensions between affordability, investment requirements, and regulatory expectations.  

Many of these issues sit at the heart of Dirty Business, a three-part documentary-drama series that follows a decade-long investigation into sewage contaminated water and the devastating consequences for both people and the environment.  

Major investment requirements and financial stress:   

Water companies need to fund infrastructure investment (e.g. mains and sewage pipes, pumping stations, treatment plants) and these are almost entirely funded by their customers and private investment. In setting PR24 , Ofwat said it included “the largest ever investment programme for the water sector”, with £104 billion of investment across the period from 2025 to 2030. However, Water UK described PR24 as “the biggest ever cut in investment” because caps on bill increases limited Ofwat’s ability to recognise the true scale of investment needed. Indeed, five companies (Anglian Water, Northumbria Water, South East Water, Southern Water and Wessex Water) argued that Ofwat’s decision left them unable to meet their regulatory requirements and they chose to exercise their legal right to request a redetermination of Ofwat’s decision by an independent group of experts within the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The independent group concluded their work in March 2026, rejecting the 83% of increases sought by water companies and deciding to allow 17% – an additional £463 million in revenue out of the total £2.7 billion the 5 companies had requested. This extra funding is expected to result in increases of 1.7% to 3.7% in bills for customers of those companies, which is in addition to the 24% increase for customers as part of Ofwat’s original determination. The additional funds are intended to allow companies to meet new legal requirements and fund delivery in critical areas like supply resilience and pollution reduction. The CMA’s decision highlights the complexity of balancing regulatory ambition with financial viability.  

Alongside this, investor confidence has been weakening – raising borrowing costs, delaying repair programmes, placing some water companies under financial stress and leading to calls to renationalise the sector. Indeed, Thames Water has come close to being taken into temporary Government control. Financial instability across parts of the sector has raised questions about the long-term sustainability of the current model.  

Taken as a collective, all of these factors interplay to determine the amount of water available for customers and the environment. They also shape water companies’ ability to deliver the improvements expected by regulators, Government, and the public.  

What changes are needed to address water availability and resilience?  

The current process for planning water resources spans multiple levels with government, regulators, regional groups, water companies, and consumers all playing a role. The last tranche of Water Resource Management Plans (WRMPs), signed off in 2025, contain a range of measures to address the future demand-supply deficit – including supply-side measures and demand-side measures. Together, these plans form the core framework for managing long-term water needs.  

Supply side proposals include new resources to be delivered by 2050, including new desalination schemes, reservoirs, water recycling and internal and intra-company water transfers. These schemes include:  

• 9 new desalination schemes [3 for Anglian Water, 4 for Southern Water and 1 for South East Water].  

• 10 new reservoirs [across 10 different water companies].  

• 1 reservoir enlargement [at Tittesworth operated by Severn Trent Water].  

• 7 new water recycling schemes. 

In July 2025, Defra published a revised National Policy Statement for water resources infrastructure, setting out the Government’s policies for developing nationally significant infrastructure projects that applies to reservoirs, desalination plans and infrastructure designed to transfer water. This provides the planning framework for delivering major new supply schemes.  

The foremost priority of the Government, arm’s length bodies and industry has been on saving water – fixing leaking pipes and using less water. While some of these water infrastructure proposals will reduce reliance on consistent rainfall, the new reservoirs will not begin construction until after 2030, and none of the desalination schemes are scheduled to begin construction until at least 2040. If delivered, it is estimated that these schemes will provide 10 million litres a day (Ml/d) of additional supply by 2050. This means that supply-side expansion will take time to materialise, placing greater emphasis on short and medium term demand management.  

All water companies across the UK are subject to regulation. In England, the economic water services regulator is Ofwat, the drinking water quality regulator the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) and the environmental regulator is the Environment Agency. In September 2024, the Government introduced the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 to strengthen regulation of the water industry. In July 2025, the Independent Water Commission published its final report, which called for a stronger and integrated regulatory framework, and that the regulator adopt a ‘supervisory approach’. In tandem, a report and subsequent letter from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to the Government also called urgently for the need to strengthen oversight of the sector. 

In the Water White Paper, the Government has proposed creating a single regulator to look at all water company activities, enabling a ‘whole firm’ view of economic and environmental performance and the provision of water services. The Government argues that this will mean less burdensome regulatory duplication and ensure water industry regulation is able to support long-term investment.  

Water companies rely on demand side measures to address a significant proportion of the water supply deficit, with reductions in consumption and leakage expected to address over 65% of the deficit across England.  

Leakage is the loss of water through the supply network due to leaking mains or supply pipes. Work to reduce leakage varies across water companies – from monitoring and surveying, to replacing pipes, pressure management and replacing customer supply pipes for free to encourage checking and reporting. The Environment Agency previously estimated that these measures could lead to a 17% reduction in demand by 2050, delivering a total reduction of 1,104 million litres per day (Ml/d). Leakage reduction therefore remains one of the most impactful tools available in the near term.  

Other demand-side measures include reducing household consumption through the uptake of metered billing (including through the introduction of smart meters). The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) has produced an interactive water meter calculator which allows individual customers to estimate how much water they use and are charged and how this compares if they were to switch to a water meter.   

Many water companies offer free water saving devices such as leaky loo detection strips, challenge timers, and water efficient shower heads, to help consumers save water and energy in their homes and gardens. The CCW has a Get Water Fit tool to help consumers use less water. Water companies and other bodies also deliver free public education programmes. In February 2025, Ofwat launched a Water Efficiency Fund which includes the development of a national Water Efficiency Campaign, and a Water Efficiency Lab to encourage behaviour change and to develop new water-saving technologies.  

Alongside this, the Environment Agency has set a target to reduce non-household (business) water consumption by 9% by 2037-2038 (from a 2019-2020 baseline reporting year). This includes measures to increase collaborative working with businesses, and the roll out of smart meters.  

More broadly, FinTech West and Tidswell are developing the UK’s first systems-led, regional playbook for water resilience. The Driving Water Resilience project is addressing the longstanding disconnect between water management (supply) and economic strategy (demand), taking a business-led rather than utility-led approach. The project will convene corporate partners, financial institutions and investors, and policymakers and decision-makers to make water a cornerstone of growth.  

Amid this demand-supply conundrum, current WRMPs indicate that all the measures proposed, if implemented, will be sufficient to meet the projected deficit in 2050. However, these calculations do not take account of the water needs of new large-scale infrastructure, including energy intensive facilities such as data centres, making future demand more difficult to plan for. This create significant uncertainty in long-term forecasting and future investment decisions.   

All of this leads to discussions around the relationship between investment and affordability, regulation and company autonomy, supply expansion, and demand management, and how we forecast, implement, and monitor the delivery of water resources. Together, these issues highlight the complexity of securing a resilient water system and the need for clear, coordinated long-term planning across the sector and beyond.  

What does this all mean for rural areas?  

Back in the 1940s, planning for water resources in England focused on consolidating local bodies involved in the supply of water and making provision for public investment to extend water and sanitation services to rural communities: by 1944, 70% of rural households and nearly 100% of urban households in England and Wales had piped water supplies. In recognition of the disparity in the cost of construction and distribution of mains and sewers in rural areas compared to urban areas, the Rural Water Supplies and Sewerage Act 1944 encouraged the extension of water and sewerage services to existing properties in rural communities. This increased the number of rural households with access to piped water to 80% by 1951. Government also encouraged water authorities to address social welfare issues in their pricing policies: averaging bills across all customers within an authority’s region of supply, rather than reflecting the different unit costs of supplying rural and urban areas. Fast-forward to 1970, and the Jeger Report recommended that policy needed to improve rural sanitation, which informed the Water Act 1973 which removed water supply and sewage disposal from local authority control, leading to the creation of ten larger regional water authorities.  

Today, rural areas continue to sit at the centre of England’s water system and are disproportionately exposed to its pressures. They host key water assets (rivers, aquifers, reservoirs) and support water-dependent sectors such as agriculture, horticulture, and food processing. These landscapes underpin national food security and rural livelihoods, a point recognised in the Water White Paper, yet they also face some of the most acute pressures from shifting water availability, quality, and regulation, with little direct attention since the Rural Water Act. 

Agriculture primarily depends on two main water sources: rainfall and stored water drawn from surface water (rivers and lakes) and groundwater (shallow and deep aquifers). Shifts in weather patterns – including more frequent droughts, intense rainfall, and flooding – are already challenging the sector’s ability to plan, produce and invest. At the same time, excess wetness in the winter season is projected to increase, limiting access to fields for cultivation and sowing. Rainfall remains the dominant source of water for UK grassland and crops, meaning changes in rainfall patterns directly affect water storage, plant productivity, soil erosion, and waterlogging.  

Evidence shows that water stress is already having a significant impact on wheat yields in southern and eastern England, a trend expected to intensify. Current assessments suggest a 3% probability that at least 80% of the UK wheat area could experience drought in any given year. Drought conditions are most likely between April and October — the core growing season — underscoring the vulnerability of agricultural water availability under a changing climate. 

Anglian Water consistently reports the largest agricultural (irrigation) demand of any English water company – with the region dominated by high-value crops that need irrigating (e.g. potatoes, vegetables, salad crops, sugar beet) and lower levels of rainfall and porous soils. Indeed, agricultural demand is the most unevenly distributed water-use category in England – dependent on crop type, soil type, rainfall, and irrigation intensity. For example, Anglian Water estimates a total public water supply demand of 1,350-1,400 million litres per day (Ml/d), comprising domestic households (870 ML/day), commercial and industrial (300 ML/day), agriculture (120-150 ML/day) and leakage (180 ML/day) whereas Severn Trent’s total public water supply demand is 1,900-2,000 ML/day comprising households (1,150 ML/day), commercial and industrial (350 ML/day), agriculture (40-60 ML/day), and leakage (400 ML/day).  

Regarding flooding, the Environment Agency has no general duty to compensate farmers for flooding, even in cases where agricultural land is used to store water to protect residential properties. Traditionally, farmers have been encouraged to seek flood damage insurance (which is not available to all agricultural holdings) and any public support has been provided on a case-by-case basis through ad hoc, time-limited schemes or programmes initiated following a major flood event (e.g. Farming Recovery Fund). From April 2026 this emphasis is shifting – with the Government and Defra placing greater focus on building resilience through the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and investing in rural flood defence measures, rather than compensating for damage after it occurs.   

All of this is important because variable weather is not felt equally everywhere, with projections indicating that average annual rainfall may rise in North West England, Scotland and coastal areas of Wales between 2051 and 2070, while much of England and Wales is expected to see declines. South-central England and North West Scotland are forecast to experience the greatest variability, signalling a need for more adaptive water management approaches.  

Farmers are responding to changing weather patterns by building resilience and improving resource efficiency. Examples include the ADHB’s Forage for Knowledge initiative which helps farmers to keep grass in the cows’ diet amid variable weather, as well as advice on animal health and welfare; while the Environment Agency’s Local Resource Option (LRO) Screening Studies support groups of farmers to identify practical solutions to improve their long-term water resilience, with 20 studies running 2024-2025, and a further 12 studies in 2025-2026. Indeed, regional plans were introduced to reflect a requirement for water companies to think strategically about solutions and to consider the needs of other sectors beyond public water supply.  

Alongside these pressures, the Water White Paper describes how agriculture is viewed as a major contributor to water pollution, accounting for around 40% of river and groundwater pollution. Pathways include surface runoff, leaching, field drains and ditches, roof drainage from sheds, direct discharge into watercourses and indirect ammonia pollution. Farmers must comply with a complex mix of legal requirements and statutory guidance, with non-compliance subject to advice, enforcement, and potential civil or criminal sanctions. The Water White Paper contains a commitment to ‘consolidate the existing regulatory framework into a single set of stronger and clearer national standards,’ including an Addressing Pollution from Agriculture Programme. This sits alongside Defra’s ongoing reforms: updated statutory guidance on Farming Rules for Water (FRfW), a consultation launched in January 2026 to simplify existing agricultural water rules, and an Environment Act target delivery plan which includes Defra funding for 29 projects running to 2028 to reduce total nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution from agriculture into the water environment by at least 40% by 2038 (against a 2018 baseline).   

Water abstraction relates to the process of withdrawing water from a river or the ground for several reasons such as drinking water, agriculture, and industry. An abstraction licence is required to do this if more than 20 cubic metres (approximately 4,400 gallons) a day is required. Between November 2025 and February 2026, the Environment Agency consulted on how to reserve abstraction rights for the future while maintaining short-term access to water. Agriculture is among the sectors likely to be affected. If a catchment’s main water source is relicensed, farmers may face new constraints on filling reservoirs or irrigating crops. In January 2026, the Environment Agency updated its guidance for abstraction licence holders, reflecting the increasing frequency of dry weather and drought.   

The Water White Paper signals Defra intention to move abstraction regulation into the environmental permitting regulations, replacing the current licencing system. While for ‘some low-risk activities undertaken by individuals and SMEs (e.g. certain flood risk activities on farms) will also no longer require a permit, where appropriate conditions are met’ – potentially saving farmers £360 based on the average permit cost, and reduced delays caused by waiting for permits to be issued – it also introduces uncertainty. If permits can be reviewed and amended more easily than licences, it may reduce farmer confidence to invest in on-farm, long-term infrastructure.  

Alongside this, the Land Use Framework for England, published in March 2026, identifies water as a major constraint on farming and land use. It highlights how water quality, water availability and flood risk increasingly determine the types of farming that are viable in different locations. The Framework promotes ‘multifunctional land use’, meaning farmland will be expected to support flood mitigation, water storage, slowing the flow, reducing nutrient runoff and improving water quality alongside food production. It also commits to providing farmers with new digital land‑use tools and modelling systems to help them plan around water availability. 

Government policy has a critical role to play in supporting the agricultural sector to adapt to a more variable and uncertain water future. Beyond regulatory compliance, and individual schemes to fund environmental benefits, there is significant potential to create new income streams for farmers who deliver water-related services – from catchmentscale water storage and flood mitigation to nutrient reduction, habitat creation, and drought resilience – and the new Land Use Framework offers opportunities to develop these further. Farmers are already providers of natural infrastructure and unlocking this potential further will require clear longterm policy goals, outcome-based investment, and stronger, more coordinated partnerships between farmers, regulators, water companies, local authorities, and communities.  

The Water White Paper addresses rural issues primarily through the lens of agriculture, pollution control, and regulatory reform – but several important rural gaps remain. We know historically that rural communities often rely on older, more dispersed infrastructure – long distribution networks, singlesource supplies, and private water systems – which are typically costlier to maintain and slower to upgrade. As a result, rural areas are often the first to experience supply interruptions and the last to benefit from major investment. In Northern Ireland, rural communities report that the wastewater system is at ‘breaking point’, with insufficient infrastructure to support new connections and ongoing, worsening pollutions.   

Research by Scotland’s Centre of Expertise for Waters (CREW) in 2015 highlighted the ‘three lows’ affecting small water supplies: low revenue, low investment, and low service quality. Researchers called for continued work on catchment protection, improved rural wastewater management, and better support for communities seeking to jointly upgrade or manage private supplies.  

In July 2025, the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) published Drinking Water 2024. This confirmed 99.97% compliance for public supplies in England. However, for private supplies, a deterioration in compliance was identified, with more than one in twenty-five supplies deemed unsuitable for drinking water. The DWI has previously showcased examples where failing rural private water supplies have been improved through community-led, cost-effective upgrades, such as installing new boreholes, treatment systems and storage infrastructure.   

International comparisons underline similar pressures. In the United States, rural communities face challenges due to rising water costs, ageing infrastructure, depleted water supplies, climate change and regulatory failures:  

• Between 2010 and 2020, rural communities faced a 41% increase in water and sewer utility rates compared to a 27% increase in suburban areas.  

• The Safe Drinking Water Act – which regulates the nation’s public drinking water supply – does not apply to private wells, which in rural areas supply more than 43 million residents.  

• 98% of public investment in water and sewer infrastructure comes from local government revenues, and some rural communities are unable to collect sufficient revenue to maintain or upgrade ageing water systems.  

Back in England, regarding public water supplies, a steering group of water companies, Water UK, Ofwat and Defra is developing a new framework for measuring, managing and funding asset maintenance to inform decisions ahead of the next price review in England and Wales, expected in 2029. However, neither this work nor the Water White Paper explicitly addresses private water supplies – despite their disproportionate importance in rural areas and the clear evidence of declining compliance. Ensuring that rural communities with private or smallscale supplies are not overlooked will be essential if future reforms are to deliver genuinely resilient water systems across the whole country. 

The Water White Paper also does not fully address transformative technology which is being adopted in rural areas. In November 2025, the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) published a policy paper on delivering AI Growth Zones. These zones will incentivise a more strategic approach to infrastructure planning by reducing the cost of operating data centres. So far, the Government has announced AI Growth Zones for South Wales, Lanarkshire in Scotland, North East England, North Wales and Culham in Oxfordshire. On the one hand, evidence suggests data centres rely heavily on water for cooling services. On the other hand, techUK, in collaboration with the Environment Agency, provided insights from 73 data centre facilities across England – finding 51% of surveyed sites use waterless cooling systems, 64% use less than a typical leisure centre, and 89% of sites measure water use or deploy systems that do not require water for cooling. TechUK recommended that the Government should deliver on its commitment to fast-track the construction of new reservoirs, and the Environment Agency should provide and publish a Water Exploitation Index (or similar) for each major river basin. However, there are no direct references in the Water White Paper to AI or data centres. If rural areas are to benefit from AI and data centres, how can we ensure water (and other infrastructure) is there for them?  

In international circles, discussions are focused on how water utilities are shifting from being invisible service providers to becoming community anchors. AI is presented as the key enabler of this shift, helping utilities move from reactive operations to predictive, community‑centred models. Water companies acting as community anchors in rural England would mean stepping beyond their traditional role of supplying clean water and wastewater management to being a trusted, place-based institution that support the resilience, wellbeing, and economic stability of rural communities. In rural settings, this shift is especially relevant because water companies are often one of the few larger, permanent organisations operating locally, and rural communities face distinctive challenges around infrastructure, climate risk, affordability, and service access.  

What is being done to involve rural communities in water schemes? A number of schemes are working to ensure rural residents are more directly involved in water management, resilience, and innovation. Enabling Water Smart Communities (EWSC) is supporting the development of Water Smart Communities (WSC) that integrate water management with sustainable housing. While integrated water management (IWM) initiatives are well established internationally, EWSC is addressing barriers in England and Wales – including stewardship, regulatory standards and affordability – with early work in Cambridgeshire, one of the driest parts of the country.  

In 2024, Defra launched the Rural Flood Resilience Partnership (RFRP) to help farmers and rural communities to adapt to a changing climate. Running until 2026, the work plan is building the evidence base on how flooding affects rural areas, sharing findings with communities and businesses, gathering feedback on data and floodwarning products, and promoting practical measures that farmers and growers can adopt to strengthen resilience. Earlier examples demonstrate the value of community-centred approaches. The Slowing the Flow project (2015) used natural flood management techniques – such as wood debris dams, bunds and woodland planting – to reduce flood frequency in Pickering. For rural communities, it showed how working with nature can provide a cost-effective, community-supported alternative to hard engineering. More broadly, Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) has produced a community guide to the water environment, offering a step by step guide to support rural groups developing local water projects.   

In February 2026, Defra launched a consultation on proposals to designate 13 bathing spots, including in rural areas. The designation is intended to reflect growing public interest in outdoor swimming and connecting with local blue spaces, alongside boosting tourism and strengthening community pride in rivers and beaches.  

Under ‘landscapes for water’, the Land Use Framework for England describes how by 2030 ‘rural communities will be able to access a greater range of economic opportunities and see wildlife returning to their local areas, and that by 2050 they will have ‘the agency to support authorities and landowners’.  

If the Water White Paper wants communities playing a meaningful role in driving change, a clearer rural picture is needed – including a shared repository of infrastructure condition, asset health, investment, proposed developments, agricultural pollution and examples of innovation and good practice. Likewise, it is vital that the Land Use Framework is implemented in a way that reflects the priorities of rural communities and businesses want to see.  

Where next? As Coleridge observed in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, “Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink” – a line that captures the persistent oscillation between abundance and scarcity that define today’s water challenges. Over the coming months, the Water White Paper will be accompanied by a Transition Plan; the EFRA Select Committee’s inquiry to water sector reform will conclude; the Environment Agency will produce a new Climate Change Risk Assessment; and the Government will establish a dedicated Land Use Unit. Yet, despite this activity, there remains limited consideration of rural water resilience, including the condition of rural infrastructure, the security of private supplies, and short and medium-term access for agriculture, rural communities, and rural businesses. Equally absent, is a systems-based perspective that connects water not only to infrastructure and the environment, but also to economic development, business continuity and growth, and community health and wellbeing. Without this, policy risks overlooking the interdependencies that shape resilience on the ground.  

Will the emerging vision for the water sector will deliver for rural areas? Watch this space.   

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Jessica is a project manager at Rose Regeneration and a senior research fellow at The National Centre for Rural Health and Care (NCRHC). She is currently collating initiatives and plans to tackle economic inactivity and support people into good work; developing a community masterplan; and evaluating a heritage skills programme. Jessica also sits on the board of a charity supporting rural communities across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and is a member of her local Patient Participation Group.  

She can be contacted by email jessica.sellick@roseregeneration.co.uk  

Website: http://roseregeneration.co.uk/ https://www.ncrhc.org/  

LinkedIn: 🌈Jessica Sellick