The pressure was already on to increase water efficiency, and reduce water use, as much as possible in new homes. But this has been turned up in the past couple of years, driven by the rise in people working from home post-Covid, and increased water shortages across the country.
The general push is to make homes and their appliances as water efficient as possible, against overall sustainability targets driven by climate change, and the leaks which water companies continue to wrestle with. Alongside manufacturers producing better products, developers are responding.
Building Regulations provide an ambiguous picture (125 litres per person per day is required, but 110 litres is an option). And rather than tightening regs, the Government has a new ‘fittings-based’ approach to compliance, hoping to empower customers rather than penalise industry. But will focusing on the demand side bring the efficiency gains?
We asked our housebuilder and developer readership what they thought of the current regime, and what more could be done. Is more supply-side intervention required to really cut our homes’ water consumption, what are practical current issues for housebuilders, and how are product solutions helping?