Per Capita Consumption

Our goal is to cut average daily water use per person (known as Per Captia Consumption, or PCC) by 14.7 per cent by 2030, dropping from the 2019/20 level of 146.22 litres

This will be a big challenge for us as extreme weather events in recent years have affected our performance on leakage, PCC and supply interruptions. This is on top of the changes we’ve seen since the pandemic in how we use water.

As most of our customers already have water meters, our progress here will depend on fitting smart meters, setting up new tariffs, working with our customers more and doing more home visits. We’ll also need to help everyone to think differently about water and how we use it.

How have we performed?

During the past 12 months, annual, per capita consumption has reduced by 1.4 litres per person per day. Despite this reduction we have not seen the reduction needed to meet our annual target of 136.7 litres per person per day. Our percentage reduction from our three year average baseline (2019/20) was 2.8 compared to the target of 4.7 percent. In missing our target we incur a penalty payment of £0.75 million.

We are working hard to reduce per capita consumption through a range of measures.

During the past year we:

• Undertook 1,703 water efficiency home visits where we conduct an audit, offer advice and install water efficiency devices and fix any simple leaks. Through those visits we fixed:
  • 175 leaking toilets
  • 297 leaking shower heads
  • 71 leaking taps
• Gave out 153,153 water saving devices through our website
• Launched our new education programme to inspire future generations which includes:
  • A partnership with SES Water where schools can visit their Flow Zone at their Interactive Education Centre at Bow Beech Reservoir in Kent.
  • Re-launching our AquaSmart education programme
  • School assembly visits
• Spoke to customers directly at events across the south east
• Launched our widespread water efficiency communications campaign