Water shortages across much of the country this summer have highlighted one of the big failures of our political leaders – the inability to implement a system of water charges that will get people to pay attention to the quantity of water they use in their everyday lives.

If the warm, dry summer of 2026 is a harbinger of things to come then acute water shortages will become a feature of life, particularly for people living in the east of the country which is significantly drier than the west.

The current system of unlimited free public water for all households is unsustainable in the long term and is unfair to boot. Monitored consumption through domestic meters, installed but not used for charging consumers, shows that 10 per cent of households account for more than 35 per cent of domestic water consumption.

Some of that imbalance is undoubtedly due to leaks, but it is also due to wasteful consumption by careless consumers or those who are wealthy enough to have every bedroom en suite or a swimming pool filled with free water in the back garden.

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