Government responds to the Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee’s Inquiry into Drought Preparedness

The response lands against a backdrop of mounting pressure on the country's water resources: last year brought the driest spring in 132 years and the hottest summer on record, and this year continues to reach new heights.

The government is clear that resilience to a 1-in-500-year drought event remains a top priority, backed by a record £104 billion of private investment earmarked for nine new reservoirs and leakage-reduction infrastructure.

Of the 17 recommendations, the government has accepted nine in full, partially accepted five, and rejected three. The response sits firmly within the wider water reform agenda set out in A New Vision for Water: White Paper, which the government describes as the foundation for addressing the country's projected water shortage over the next decade.

What’s been accepted by the government

The most significant commitments cluster around data, monitoring and demand management. The government has accepted the case for further investment in drought data collection and is scoping a Drought Data Hub that would consolidate existing sources into a single, accessible platform. The national Water Situation Report will also be expanded this Autumn to give a more consistent early-warning signal across sectors.

On demand, the government has accepted the recommendation to strengthen Part G of the Building Regulations 2010, with a consultation on tighter water efficiency standards for new homes closed and a response due later this year. Leakage reduction remains a stated priority, underpinned by the rollout of an estimated 10.4 million smart meters between 2025 and 2030. This would take smart metering coverage from around 12% of households today to roughly 50% by the end of the decade. Abstraction licensing is also set to move into the Environmental Permitting Regime, digitising a currently paper-based system.

Where the government has pushed back

Three recommendations were rejected outright. Most notable for industry is the rejection of statutory consultee status for water companies on all major planning decisions – including data centres, housing and energy infrastructure. Instead, the government is relying on new "Requirement to Assist" regulations obliging water companies to support plan-making on request, alongside guidance encouraging early engagement where large developments are likely to place significant demand on supply.

The government has also rejected an expanded remit for Internal Drainage Boards, and only partially accepted calls for a published emergency drought prioritisation plan, citing national security sensitivities around publishing such detail in full.

The techUK view

This response from the government confirms drought resilience as a priority and one that is increasingly shaped by data and digital infrastructure rather than physical assets alone. We are seeing the increasing recognition of better data as the precondition for more informed decisions, whether that is triggering early mitigation action or informing where new development can safely proceed.

Water system planning, particularly understanding where projects should locate based on water availability, stood out. techUK has previously called for the Environment Agency to publish a river basin level Water Exploitation Index (or equivalent) to help water users understand basin-level constraints in their planning decisions. We were therefore glad to see the Government confirm its support for Regional Water Resources Groups, as well as that it is considering opportunities to rationalise and better align existing planning functions and resource such as River Basin Management Planning.

For data centres specifically, often in the limelight when it comes to water use, we see early coordination between developers, water companies, and local authorities (just as is done for electricity) as essential for identifying and resolving water constraints early in the design process.

That said, the rejection of statutory consultee status for water companies on planning decisions is a gap worth watching closely, particularly for members developing data centres and other digital infrastructure. Relying solely on non-statutory engagement and "Requirement to Assist" leaves the potential for water stress to be identified late in the planning process, despite the government’s intentions for early visibility to be accounted for. This is precisely the risk we flagged in our response to the government's water reform white paper, where we also noted the absence of a clear framework distinguishing potable from non-potable demand, and the lack of a regulatory model for third-party co-investment in resilience infrastructure. Better data accessibility, of the kind promised through the Drought Data Hub, will only partially close this gap unless it is matched by a clearer planning framework.

The government's own acknowledgement that rain gauge coverage has declined for decades, and that assessment of Exceptional Shortage of Rainfall is consequently constrained, is a reminder that ambitions for near-real-time monitoring and early warning systems depend on unglamorous but essential groundwork. techUK will continue to press for digital twins, IoT-enabled monitoring and open data standards to be built into the forthcoming Drought Data Hub and Clean Water Bill, which will inform the remit and priorities of the new regulator, from the outset rather than as an add-on.

techUK will also continue to engage with Defra, the Environment Agency and the National Drought Group as this work progresses, and will track how these workstreams develop through the rest of 2026 via our Water Digitalisation Working Group. Through our data centre members, we are working with Water Resources South East, one of several Regional Water Resource Groups, to integrate accurate, future data centre demand projections within their plans.

Climate, Environment and Sustainability Programme activities

The techUK Climate Programme provides opportunities for members to present tech solutions that assist carbon emission reduction, circularity, and human rights goals. We also help our members with their own net zero transition, including measurement, implementation, compliance, and reporting. Visit the programme page here.