GMB, the water workers union, plan to step up a campaign to secure a new ownership structure for the UK water industry that would lead to better value for consumers and open the way to develop new water supplies for London and the South East.
This coincides with a warning sounded by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), which produced a map showing hot-spots where the water available to each person was likely to be at a premium. There are fears that within 20 years a parched zone will spread across the country from the Bristol Channel to the Norfolk coast and north of the Midlands.