Can We Build Smarter?
Blog by Rachel Dyson, Waterwise, 25.06.2025
I recently had the pleasure of attending the “Can We Build Smarter?” workshop hosted by the Future Water Association, a timely and thought-provoking gathering of water, housing, planning professionals and innovators united by a common challenge: how to meet the UK’s urgent housing growth targets without deepening our water crisis. With the Government committed to delivering 1.5 million new homes by 2030, we face a stark reality, one where environmental resilience, infrastructure capacity, and water availability are already under significant strain. The workshop posed a simple but powerful question: Can we really build smarter?
Moving water efficiency, reuse and stewardship to mainstream
What struck me the most was the willingness across those in the room, from developers to the water sector to innovators, to take action. There was a shared (and at times, frustrated) recognition that traditional approaches to development simply won’t cut it anymore, only exacerbating existing problems. The evidence is all around us in the now-familiar annual cycle of extremes: swinging from too much water to too little, with communities, infrastructure, and the environment caught in the middle.
While many people outside the sector are not yet fully awake to the risks of a projected 5 billion litres per day deficit by 2055 if no action is taken, it’s encouraging to see meaningful progress beginning to emerge in water resources plans. What’s clear is that water efficiency, reuse, and stewardship can no longer sit on the sidelines. They must be placed firmly at the centre of how we plan, design, and deliver the places where we live and work.
Water reuse emerged as a critical lever, and there was strong consensus in the room that it needs to become mainstream and mandated. We saw inspirational examples from San Francisco and Australia where *blackwater and **greywater reuse schemes are operating successfully at precinct scale. Why not here?
Just as compelling was the call to move beyond our narrow focus on “litres per person per day” and instead embrace whole-home water performance standards. These should be aligned with existing energy and climate targets and embedded within the smart technologies people are already using in their homes. Imagine water being monitored and managed as intuitively as your heating via Hive or Nest? By making water visible and actionable through everyday appliances, we can support smarter choices, not just by householders, but also by builders, designers and planners.
The role of the built environment
The built environment sector has both the capability and the appetite to go further. But as the Wates Group and others pointed out, we’re still building to minimum compliance rather than maximum opportunity. Developers are willing to deliver to higher water efficiency standards, but in the absence of clear regulatory signals, incentives or defined performance outcomes, they’re left without the direction or confidence needed to do so.
We need smarter pricing signals, better product labelling (thankfully on the way), and planning policy that puts water on an equal footing with other elements of nature recovery and carbon reduction. Encouragingly, we are beginning to see signs of policy shift in the right direction, but the pace and scale of change still fall short. If we’re serious about resilience, water needs the same policy ambition and urgency as energy. Without it, the UK risks falling behind global frontrunners already embedding water reuse and efficiency into mainstream development. We were reminded that approximately £3 per tonne for water is less than one cup of takeaway coffee, hardly a motivator for change. But if we want water to be valued, we need the policy frameworks and incentives to match.
Stewardship and community
The most exciting part of the day for me was the conversation around community stewardship. The Enabling Water Smart Communities (EWSC) project offered a powerful blueprint for how residents themselves can be empowered to manage sustainable drainage systems (SuDS), open spaces, and water assets long after the diggers leave. From Community Land Trusts in Kennett Garden Village to Community Interest Companies (CICs) in the Leeds Climate Innovation District, we saw how democratic governance models and modest, CPI-linked management fees can create vibrant places that are climate-conscious and community-owned.
These models are not without complexity. Ownership, transitions, and incentives need careful planning, but they offer hope. As the keynote speaker alluded to, “If we keep building the same things, we’ll keep getting the same problems.” Stewardship offers a tangible path toward doing things differently.
What next?
One uncomfortable truth echoed through the discussions: water has never reached the top of everyone’s priorities, unless, of course, you work in the water sector. Too often, it’s seen as secondary or even an afterthought compared to energy and net zero action. As a result, water is rarely embedded into systems thinking or reflected meaningfully in strategic planning. That must change.
There was a strong sense of urgency and alignment in the room around the need for a National Framework for Water Reuse, more integrated planning across sectors, and clearer accountability. The recent launch of
the next round of regional water resource plans marks a welcome step forward. An opportunity to build on the progress to date, and fundamentally rethink how water is planned and managed across all
sectors. But we must also recognise the gap between ambition and delivery, and act now to close it. The knowledge, passion, and tools already exist. Now we need action, led by cross-sector collaboration and enabled by clear standards, incentives, and investment.
Waterwise is committed to being part of that change. Advocating for regulatory reform, supporting innovation, and embedding water stewardship across the housing and planning agenda. Let’s lead with ambition, not obstacles – and work together to build smarter, more resilient places.
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*greywater: treated water from showers, baths
**blackwater: treated water from toilets
