England faces widespread water shortages unless the government takes decisive action under the growing threat of droughts, a group of peers has warned.
The House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee highlighted the country’s water infrastructure is under increasing strain from a combination of climate change, population growth, significant public water supply leakage, and the demands of water-intensive industries.
In a report published on Thursday, the cross-party committee stressed that while the UK is not short of rainfall, it must drastically improve how it stores, manages, and reuses water.
Ministers were urged to encourage greater water reuse and rainwater harvesting among the public, launch targeted awareness campaigns, and enhance water efficiency standards in homes.
These measures form part of a “whole society approach” aimed at balancing supply and demand to avert both drought and flooding as the impacts of global warming intensify.
The warning comes after the Environment Agency cautioned that England could face a daily public water shortfall of five billion litres by 2055 – a volume equivalent to 2,000 Olympic swimming pools.
The country is already seeing an escalation in drought conditions, with water shortages across the country in 2025 being declared a “nationally significant incident” based on the number of areas affected and widespread damage inflicted on the environment and agriculture.
The dry conditions hit crop yields, affected the breeding patterns of some animals, harmed wetlands and river ecosystems, increased the wildfire risk and prompted several areas to impose hosepipe bans.
Committee chairwoman Baroness Sheehan said: “Climate change is increasing the risk of drought through a combination of hotter summers and heavier winter rains making the capture and storage of rainwater increasingly important.
She said the experience of 2025 sent a “warning signal to the water and drought management system”, with the country already seeing a dry start to spring in 2026 and the world facing a wave of warmer “El Niño” weather conditions later this year.
“The government must act now to secure England’s most vital resource for the future and work with the public to ensure the taps don’t run dry,” she added.
In its report, the committee recommended the government must build a more comprehensive understanding of threats to England’s water security.
To do this, it should improve impact data and drought monitoring as well as conduct a full environmental and economic assessment that weighs up the cost of inaction against investing in drought resilience.
Changes to regulations could help to drive sectors that are reliant on taking water from the environment to improve drought resilience, the report added.
The group said this could help make the construction of local resource reservoirs easier for places such as farms and golf courses, and boost the flexibility of the system for licensing abstraction so it better supports water resource projects.
Ministers should also publish a prioritisation plan for an emergency drought by no later than autumn 2026, as well as roll out nature-based solutions more widely in urban and rural settings, the peers said.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has been approached for comment.
