EWSC responds to Future Homes Hub ‘Water Ready’ roadmap for water efficient homes

The Future Homes Hub (FHH) has today launched ‘Water Ready’ which proposes a roadmap towards efficient new homes.  
 
FHH was commissioned by the Department for Environment, Farming & Rural Affairs to build on previous work that informed the government’s Environment Improvement Plan and Plan for Water. FHH has brought together a cross-industry working group including the homebuilding sector, the water community and public bodies to develop a roadmap for building water efficient new homes, identifying enabling factors and recommendations to address challenges. Its central recommendation is that the Government should set out a pathway in water efficiency requirements over the next ten years, so that industry can have confidence to invest, innovate and deliver water efficient new homes. 
 
The Enabling Water Smart Communities (EWSC) project welcomes this cross-sector initiative led by homebuilders to drive much needed reductions in household water consumption. The project was pleased to be engaged with the development of the report and to see some of its suggestions taken on board.  
 
The report is a considerable step in the right direction, with many of the recommendations aligning with EWSC. There are some areas where EWSC feels further ambition is needed; the EWSC team is keen to continue to work with FHH and others across the homebuilding and water sectors to develop these areas further.  

Water consumption targets 
The EWSC welcomes the development of a roadmap for improving water efficiency beyond the 2025 Building Regulations standards to 2035. We agree that confirmation of the targets for litres per person per day (LPPPD) should occur as early as possible, to provide greater lead-in times for local policies and water company environmental incentives. However, given the current water stress facing large parts of the country, EWSC believes that the LPPD targets could be far more ambitious by 2030.  
 
The EWSC would also like to see a country-wide approach to LPPPD targets adopted, rather than different targets for water stressed areas. A full country-wide approach would ensure clarity and consistency for the industry and mean more water is left in the environment to enable it to adapt to the impacts of climate change.  
 
Ahead of ambitious water efficiency targets being baked into Building Regulations, EWSC also advocates for Building Regulations to contain a consistent methodology for going beyond targets. This would support Local Authorities to innovate and support the water sector to develop incentives for ambitious targets.  
 
Water reuse 
EWSC believes that to help achieve more ambitious LPPPD targets, greater efforts are needed across both the housebuilding and water sectors to unlock water reuse sooner.   
EWSC therefore strongly agrees with FHH that the Government needs to urgently change regulations to address the ‘wholesome water’ issue that is currently preventing the ability to deliver dual water supply pipe systems in homes. EWSC urges that this is done by 2025, enabling lower LPPPD targets to be brought forward sooner.  
 
EWSC also strongly supports the recommendation that Defra require a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) or British Standard to be written for dual system pipework layouts. This will greatly support their use in new developments and also their being made mandatory in Building Regulations in future.  

The need for building competency and skills around the installation, repair and maintenance of reuse system is also supported by EWSC; there is an urgency around this to avoid skills shortages becoming a blocker for mainstreaming reuse systems. Training should be aligned with professional bodies such as CIWEM and link with initiatives such as The Supply Chain Sustainability School, a FHH member. 
 
EWSC concurs with FHH that developers and consumers want confidence in arrangements to maintain reuse systems, and that this is an important area of work. The EWSC project is looking at a model for stewardship arrangements for such systems, including rules of agreement. Developers also need more certainty around the costs of installing reuse systems, so EWSC is undertaking an exercise to determine the costs associated with delivering communal reuse systems at a variety of scales and densities of development.  
 
Drainage 
The EWSC project is very supportive of the recommendation related to smaller drainage pipes to improve waste flows from WCs. Part of EWSC’s ‘discovery phase’ looked at insights from the deployment of this approach in the Netherlands; it’s something the project is interested to explore further.  
 
Customer journey 
The FHH report highlights the need to engage consumers in the right way and bring them on the journey to more efficient water use. This supports the EWSC’s research into individual practices and values associated with water, which will help inform the design of water smart communities.  
 
Water positive development  
EWSC agrees with FHH for the need to develop and agree a national policy framework setting out the roles and responsibilities of developers, water companies, local authorities, regulators and other stakeholders in achieving water positive development in areas of water stress. In particular, the water and homebuilding sectors need to work together to develop an agreed approach to finding, funding and then delivering water offset schemes.  

  
Looking ahead 
The work that FHH has done to set out a roadmap for water efficient homes and analyse the barriers and enablers for change is very welcome indeed.  It’s an important first step in developing and implementing a national strategy that enables the building of the homes required, whilst ensuring water supplies into the future.   
 
This work is at the heart of the EWSC project. There are areas of the roadmap recommendations where greater collaboration, ambition and pace is needed; the EWSC team is ready to work with FHH, Government and other partners to drive this.