Sussex housing targets spark fears over water shortages

CPRE Sussex says that new development demands are adding pressure to an already stretched water system and has called for water companies to become statutory consultees on Local Plans to ensure infrastructure needs are properly considered.

The call follows the government’s rejection of the call in the Lord Committee’s drought report for water companies to be statutory consultees on all major planning works.

Dr Roger Smith, lead planning volunteer at CPRE Sussex, said: "Central Government and planning authorities presume that no matter how large the housing target, safe drinking water will always be provided because water companies are required by regulation to supply water and that in consequence there is no need for these companies to be represented and subject to scrutiny at the examination-in-public of local plans.

"With high temperatures and increasingly long periods of drought being forecast to be the norm, the presumption that potable water can always be provided is foolish and untenable.

"If demand were to exceed supply, water outages and rationing would become the norm, with devastating consequences for future generations."

Councils across Sussex have been assigned thousands of new homes to deliver over the coming years.