Energy & Climate
‘We are not powerless’
British way of life under threat from heat, flooding and drought, warns Climate Change Committee – but solutions exist.
21 May 2026
A House of Lords committee has warned that England’s water supply is under growing strain due to a combination of climate change, population growth, public water supply leakage and water-intensive industries. Without action, it says, the risk of drought in England threatens the very systems on which people and nature depend.
In its report, Surviving drought: reclaim the rain, published yesterday (Thursday 21 May), the cross-party House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee also says the UK is not short of rain – but it must store, manage and reuse it much better to help prevent both drought and flooding.
To strengthen England’s water security, the Committee is urging the government to understand the problem through better impact data and drought monitoring and by conducting a full environmental and economic assessment of drought to weigh the cost of inaction against the value of resilience.
The Committee says supply and demand must be balanced by driving a ‘whole of society’ approach to drought, including through awareness-raising campaigns, improving water efficiency standards in homes and promoting water reuse and rainwater harvesting.
Drought resilience must also be improved for sectors reliant on abstraction by prioritising regulatory changes to make the construction of local resource reservoirs easier for farms, golf courses and other appropriate places, and increasing the flexibility of abstraction licensing to support catchment-based water resource projects.
Drought planning and response must be strengthened to make it fit for the future by publishing a prioritisation plan for an emergency drought by no later than autumn 2026 and rolling out nature-based solutions more widely in urban and rural settings.
‘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.
‘The experience of the 2025 drought sent a warning signal to the water and drought management system. We have already had a dry start to this spring, so it is critical that action is taken now to prepare for serious drought conditions, particularly as we enter a reported El Niño year.
‘We heard during our inquiry that if action is not taken now, public water demand could exceed supply by five billion litres every day (equivalent to 2000 Olympic swimming pools) by 2055. As a result, serious thought, planning and investment must go into managing the environmental and economic threats that drought poses to England.
‘Our report provides the Government with practical recommendations which, if implemented, would accelerate England towards drought resilience.
‘Water is the foundation of life itself. 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.’
BARONESS SHEEHAN
Chair of the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee
British way of life under threat from heat, flooding and drought, warns Climate Change Committee – but solutions exist.
Shell’s £13.6 billion annual profits could cover UK’s £2.8bn bill for extreme weather damages almost five times over, analysis shows.
WWF: Extreme weather costs are undermining the insurance sector.
