NEWS EXTRA
rainwater and grey water to allow water companies to manage non- portable water for certain demands in households and businesses. We’re working with Ofwat to encourage greater levels of water and wastewater efficiency in new developments for environmental incentives to developers considering where new technologies and water efficient practices could be great integrated into building and developments,” he said. “Finally, DERA continues to progress work on mandatory water efficiency labelling and will respond soon to consultation in improving water efficiency through tighter building regs in new homes.”
Enabling Water Smart Communities.
Enabling Water Smart Communities (ESWC), a programme by Anglian Water, was designed to explore the relationship between integrated water management (IWM), community engagement and housing development to identify the barriers to IWM within the UK. Warren, the integrated water manager at Anglian Water, explained: “Our analysis suggests that community-scale water reuse is necessary for unlocking housing growth in water scarce areas. It shows that the public are on board and that the costs of installation are not insurmountable. There is a strong case to do the regulatory fixes and just make it happen. “The key findings were that
community rainwater harvesting was the best value option for developments, averaging out at around two thousand pounds additional cost per property for developments of 100 properties or more. greywater on the other hand only stacked up at a community scale for dense developments.” The study found that community scale water reuse systems are comparable to current conventional options and are likely to be more favourable in comparison to future supply options.
“We also looked at whole life carbon and found that community scale water reuse is potentially more sustainable too,” continued Warren, “with the embodied carbon of water reuse infrastructure being largely offset by the operational water carbon savings it generates. “In terms of costs being a barrier to water reuse, environmental incentives can play a part. However, these incentives are often difficult to find and are not always clear on expectation. We therefore produced two documents the first to collate in one place all the current environmental incentives available from all the English water companies.
“We have also worked with the Good Homes Alliance to develop a design guide aimed at architects and designers of housing developments and local planning authorities to help show how such assets can be incorporated into the design of properties.
“The next chapter of this journey is Building Water Smart Places (BWSP), a proposed cross-sector delivery programme that builds on EWSC, a development dependent on securing funding through Water Breakthrough Challenge 7. “Having spent the last few years through EWSC building the evidence base, tools and partnerships needed to support water-smart communities, BWSP is really about the next step: delivery at scale.”
Project Zero: Scaling Water Reuse in the UK Project Zero, Affinity Water’s innovation initiative to achieve water neutrality in new housing developments, aims to create a replicable, industry-leading approach to delivering water-neutral housing developments.
Research conducted as part of the project, funded by the Ofwat Innovation Fund, has found that around 25% of household water use doesn’t need to be of drinking water quality, and that water reuse systems could reduce demand for drinking water by up to 23%, concluding that, according to the project, new homes could significantly reduce water demand using technology already available today.
Stormsaver also spoke on innovations in water reuse, going on to highlight the importance of aiming for Water reuse as a nationwide standard from 2030. As Farnsworth said; “The later we act, the less we save. Everyone has their part to play by re-using water.”
Reducing water usage For Marsh Industries, the conference was an important opportunity to contribute to the conversation and share its experience of developing practical solutions that can help reduce water consumption and make better use of water.
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The Summit provided an
opportunity to discuss how demand can be reduced, water resources protected, and a more resilient future built. The company believes the industry has a responsibility to continue developing and promoting solutions that help make better use of our most valuable natural resource.
Water reuse technology is becoming increasingly relevant to merchants, with developers, consultants and contractors all under growing pressure to improve water efficiency and reduce environmental impact.
“As a leading UK manufacturer of innovative water management solutions, Marsh Industries is supporting the growing data centre sector with a comprehensive range of GRP water storage, treatment and rainwater harvesting systems,” explained Boyer, “enabling the capture, treatment and reuse of water to reduce reliance on mains supplies, improve operational efficiency and support more sustainable data centre development.”
The closing panel of the conference discussed the key barriers, stakeholder priorities and practical actions and innovations needed to move from vision to large scale implementation. Michael Harrison, business development director at Marsh, said: “There was great collaboration in the room. Each of the companies, MPs, manufacturers like ourselves, academics, trade press and other trade bodies were united, looking at the topics that are going to impact us all. A good range of speakers came together over a set of questions in the workshop and there was constructive feedback from everyone in the room. “It was a good example of what can be achieved when people come together and drive things forward.”” BMJ
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net October 2026
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