Enabling Water Smart Communities

CIWEM, as part of the Enabling Water Smart Communities project, has unveiled groundbreaking research demonstrating the urgent need for water-smart housing to mitigate the economic impact of water scarcity in the UK.     The research was conducted by PublicFirst, a policy, research, opinion and strategy consultancy.     According to the analysis, water scarcity could cost the UK economy £25 billion over the next five years due to undelivered housing developments – a critical obstacle to meeting the government’s housing targets.     This includes:  - £18.3bn in lost construction-related economic activity  - £6.3bn in diminished land value uplift  - £344bn in reduced productivity gains in high-value areas.    Addressing water scarcity through smart housing solutions is essential to mitigating these losses and ensuring sustainable growth in the UK’s most economically significant regions.    Read the full report, under 'Project Outputs', here: https://lnkd.in/e_h4ZCyP   *Image caption: Red shading indicates areas where new housing targets pose water scarcity issues.* -- Anglian Water Services United Utilities Arup Thames Water Home Builders Federation Future Homes Hub Good Homes Alliance #enablingwatersmartcommunities #EWSC #CIWEM #Research #Housing

Today is the day! We are looking forward to welcoming 150 delegates to #GoodHomes2025 this afternoon at the British Library Knowledge Centre in London. We have a great speaker line-up including keynote Dame Baroness Brown Julia King DBE FREng FRS FMedSci (Chair of the Climate Change Committee's Adaptation Committee) and representatives from Homes England, Landscape Institute, Defra, CIWEM (The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management), Thames Water, Enfield Council, RIBA, UK NZC Buildings Standard, University of Cambridge, Green Finance Institute, Pollard Thomas Edwards, Leeds Beckett University, Clarion Housing Group, UKRI and more. With sessions on: ‘Climate adaptation in placemaking and building design’  ‘Best practice water efficiency and reuse in housing’  ‘Unlocking investment and incentivising the delivery of net zero homes’  ‘The role of building performance evaluation in ensuring high quality outcomes in new homes and retrofit’ Many thanks to our sponsors and exhibitors Aquality Trading & Consulting Ltd, Bioregional, Build Test Solutions and Resisure. https://lnkd.in/erDZGdS7

EWSC Stewardship workshop - this Thursday The Water & Housing sectors have interlinked challenges, and only by working together can we solve them. 📆 30 January 2025 ⏰ 10:00 - 12:00 📍 Online, MS Teams   Join us to explore possible models for stewardship in future housing developments, focusing on means to save water and promote better water management through SUDS, water reuse and harvesting. We will be discussing: ➡️ What does good water stewardship look like? ➡️ What's our ambition for water stewardship in new housing developments? ➡️ How do we achieve that? - mapping the journey onto a blueprint Interested in joining? Contact Stuart Edwards [stuart.edwards@uuplc.co.uk]   Learn more about EWSC's stewardship project: https://lnkd.in/eKmyM9jZ #enablingwatersmartcommunities #EWSC #Stewardship #Workshop

Check out EWSC's Roadmap to Water Reuse 🛣️💧   The Roadmap sets out a series of key actions along a timeline for water companies in England & Wales to be ready to implement community scale water reuse. It covers actions across a range of political, environmental, social, technological and legal areas.   The Roadmap was developed via a workshop with several water companies and later refined at a roundtable with water industry regulators.    Key actions in the short term include: 👉 holding a workshop with housebuilders/developers to better understand their perspectives 👉 developing more clarity on the regulatory pathway with government 👉 drawing a template Water Safety Plan for reuse 👉 commencing lifecycle/cost-value assessment 👉 establishing a working group to ensure all roadmap actions progress View the Roadmap here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/d6W-TbsB (under 'Project Outputs') -- The Roadmap is a 'live' document - we welcome further feedback and input. Please email (ewsc@anglianwater.co.uk) or signal your interest in the comments.   Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) | Environment Agency | Ofwat | Health and Safety Executive | UK Health Security Agency Anglian Water Services | United Utilities | Thames Water | Future Homes Hub | Home Builders Federation #EWSC #enablingwatersmartcommunities #WaterReuse #Community

A key focus of the EWSC project is the exploration and development of stewardship models for water resources and assets associated with new housing.   New models of stewardship involve innovative forms of partnership between stakeholders, alternative forms of ownership, and governance structures designed to deliver more sustainable outcomes.   To support the development of new stewardship models in the EWSC project and beyond, the University of East Anglia Research Team is conducting a series of six in-depth case studies.   These case studies explore a range of innovative approaches to stewardship and community engagement with water that are already being tested in various locations across the UK.   In this article, published on the EWSC Medium page, Kavindra Paranage and Tom Hargreaves share some early insights about the development of effective approaches to co-stewardship by drawing on three of their ongoing case studies: ➡️ The Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative ➡️ Project Zero ➡️ Project Groundwater Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/eREXczr2 -- Please let us know your thoughts about these case studies, or stewardship in general, in the comments.   Anglian Water Services #EWSC #enablingwatersmartcommunities #Research #Stewardship

Last week we held a EWSC roundtable event: 'Water Smart Communities - unveiling social and economic research on the future of water and housing.'   We presented new research findings from Public First and The University of Manchester which explored the economic case for water smart housing and social perspectives around water scarcity and reuse.   Key points: 📌 Water smart homes would unlock significant housing delivering in water scarce areas: 12% of the 1.5 million planned homes (61,500) are estimated to be held up because of insufficient water to supply them, impacting the economy by over £25 billion over the 5 years of the current parliament. 📌 An opinion poll of over 4,000 people indicates that there is overall public support for reuse: rainwater use is seen as acceptable and most would be willing to use greywater from showers, washing machines etc for toilet flushing and outdoor use such as water and cleaning. 📌 In depth qualitative research also shows broad support for reuse highlighting that this support is dependent on trust in technology and in the governance of infrastructure.    There was lots of interest in these findings. We had an excellent discussion around enablers for water smart homes including clear standards & regulations for water reuse systems, a means for checking compliance, and ensuring trusted governance & maintenance. We also discussed the need for a national narrative on water scarcity - across government and the public.   Thank you to those who came and contributed to the discussion!   Lorna Devenish | University of Exeter Nikita Perepelov | Water UK Alastair Chisholm | CIWEM (The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management) Laura Grant | Defra Rebecca Campbell | Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government Jack Shaw | Labour Together George Warren & Jonathan Glerum | Anglian Water Services Alison Murphy | Environment Agency John Myers YIMBY Alliance Gavin Thorne | Barratt Redrow Dr Tom Dollard | Good Homes Alliance Rhodri Williams | Home Builders Federation John Slaughter | Future Homes Hub Megan Corton Scott | Labour Climate and Environment Forum Ann Bunting | Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) Janet Dunnett Homes England Adam Spencer | Health and Safety Executive Nancy Kimberly | Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service   Thanks to our chair JEAN SPENCER And speakers: Ella Foggitt & Claire Hoolohan | The University of Manchester Bertie W., Ben Savours, Seb Wride | Public First Cat Moncrieff | CIWEM   Watch this space for detailed findings....

At Anglian Water, growth isn’t just about new homes and jobs – it’s about creating thriving communities, a stronger economy, and a sustainable future. With our region set to welcome over 700,000 more people in the next 20 years, we’re proud to play a key role in making it happen.   As the UK targets 1.5 million new homes by 2029, water infrastructure is critical to enabling this growth. Which is why we're planning to invest £11billion into our region, creating thousands of skilled jobs while delivering essential upgrades to protect our precious water resources, and improving resilience to climate change, as well as delivering two new reservoirs, new wetlands and 700km of new pipelines.   The Enabling Water Smart Communities project is playing a vital role in enabling growth by equipping developers and local authorities with tools to integrate water reuse and conservation into new housing developments. As seen in the video from CIWEM (The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management), Cambridge’s Eddington development, perfectly demonstrates how embedding smart water management can lead to resilient, sustainable developments.   #Growth #Investment #WaterSmartSolutions

In a recent article for The Environment, Alastair Chisholm talks about the new analysis - published by Enabling Water Smart Communities and led by Anglian Water Services exploring the costs of water reuse installations - for greywater and stormwater reuse, at community scale and for individual plots.   The report presents capital costs for external pipework, storage and treatment equipment, and internal pipework. These costs were sought from appropriate providers including treatment equipment suppliers, water companies, self-lay pipework providers, and plumbing contractors.   Findings indicate that: - community-scale stormwater reuse is the most cost-effective, even for smaller sized developments of 40-50 homes. - by comparison greywater reuse is more expensive, but more data is needed to reduce uncertainties. - there is a significant fall in costs with development size up to around 100 units higher density development sites yield lower costs   Read the article here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/ehXajb-Y   #EWSC #CIWEM #TheEnvironment #WaterReuse

EWSC project partner Thames Water recently carried out a series of webinars and surveys with local authority representatives within their catchment area.   The webinars and survey sought to explore awareness and collaboration around water sector initiatives for addressing issues of water scarcity, drainage and rainwater management associated with new housing and development.   This latest article for the EWSC Medium page takes a look at the key findings from these sessions, and explores how we can improve collaboration between water companies, local authorities and developers, to unlock the shared value of water smart communities.   Read the article here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eqGJqyWa   Local Government Association, ADEPT and Royal Town Planning Institute   #EWSC #enablingwatersmartcommunities #Webinars

Thanks to everyone who attended for contributing to a fascinating roundtable discussion. We'll be sharing the research findings in due course. The University of Manchester Public First