Written question WQ88027

There is no legal definition of the term “water poverty”.

In March 2021, Water UK, the body representing the water industry in England and Wales, published findings of research which was carried out by Centre for Economics and Public Administration (CEPA) on developing and implementing an approach for estimating the scale of water poverty in England and Wales (Quantitative analysis of water poverty in England and Wales). The table shows the estimated number of households spending more than a certain percentage of their income (after housing costs) on their combined water and wastewater bill, for the range of percentages shown in the first row of the table.

Total estimated households in water poverty (by threshold definition, %) based on 2019/20 data.

2%

3%

4%

5%

6%

7%

650,000

354,000

192,000

114,000

60,000

42,000

In its guidance in relation to the 2024 Price Review (PR24) process, Ofwat has provided water companies with a definition of water poverty as follows: “households spending more than 5% of their income (after housing costs) on their combined water and wastewater bill”. Taking this definition, on this basis the CEPA research indicates the estimated number of households in water poverty in Wales is 114,000. These are the latest figures available.