New Romney Homes Plan Tests Kent’s Water-Stressed Future

A proposed 110-home scheme on farmland at New Romney has landed in the middle of Kent’s bigger water argument: how can we keep building in one of the most water-stressed parts of the country while the company leaks treated water and households still use far more than the country says we should?

The land north of Cockreed Lane is not just another neat little outline-planning box on a developer’s website. It is 11.3 acres of agricultural land on the northern edge of New Romney, next to the settlement boundary, being promoted for up to 110 homes, public open space and 22% affordable housing. Catesby Estates says Folkestone & Hythe has only 3.1 years of housing supply against a need for 885 homes a year. That is the housing-pressure argument. It is real. But so is the water-pressure argument.

Affinity Water’s territory is not a normal water map. Its 2024/25 annual report says its supply area contains 10% of the world’s rare chalk streams, threatened by climate change, water demand, pollution and historic river modification. Affinity’s own 2026 report goes further, saying much of its supply area is classed by the Environment Agency as “seriously water-stressed” and that the company operates where “water stress [is] most severe”. That is the updated version of the old Morocco/Egypt warning: the South East’s water problem is not folklore. It is now the company’s own published risk language.

And then there is leakage. Affinity’s restated five-year in-year leakage series shows 167.9 Ml/d in 2020/21, 154.3 Ml/d in 2021/22, 150.7 Ml/d in 2022/23, 153.5 Ml/d in 2023/24 and 148.1 Ml/d in 2024/25. One megalitre is one million litres, so the latest figure means 148.1 million litres of treated water leaked away every day. Using the standard 2.5 million litres for an Olympic-size swimming pool, that is about 59 Olympic pools a day, or roughly 21,623 Olympic pools a year in 2024/25.

The old Shepway Vox “Bewl Water” yardstick still works, but it needs handling carefully. Bewl Water’s capacity is 31,000 megalitres — 31 billion litres — not 31 million litres. Across the five years from 2020/21 to 2024/25, Affinity’s leakage adds up to about 282.8 billion litres. That is roughly 113,138 Olympic pools, or about 9.1 Bewl Water reservoirs. This is not a dripping tap. It is an invisible river running under our feet.

But this cannot be a lazy “blame the water company and carry on watering the lawn” story. We, the customers, are part of it too. Affinity’s per-person water use remains high: 167.0 litres per person per day in 2020/21, 157.9 in 2021/22, 157.0 in 2022/23, 154.0 in 2023/24 and 153.9 in 2024/25. The company’s 2024/25 annual report says customers currently use around 154 litres per person per day against an average of 137. That is way above the 110-litre long-term benchmark.

Using 2.58 people per household, Affinity’s latest use works out at about 397 litres per household per day. A 110-litre-per-person benchmark would be about 284 litres per household. The government’s Part G consultation is now looking at taking new homes from 125 litres per person per day to 105, and reducing the optional tighter standard from 110 to 100. In a seriously water-stressed area, that direction of travel matters.

That is why water must stop being treated as a back-page technical detail in planning. The House of Commons Library states plainly that local planning authorities are not legally required to consult water and sewerage companies on planning applications because they are not statutory consultees. The government now says it intends to make water and sewerage companies consultation bodies for the new plan-making system, and will consider their role in planning applications. The Shepway Vox Team, think this should happen given climate change and the need for housing: if water stress can block, delay or undermine growth, water companies should be formally in the room before major housing decisions are made.

The Future Homes Standard sharpens the point. It is mainly sold as a carbon policy, with new homes expected to emit at least 75% less carbon than homes built to 2013 standards. But the home of the future is not just a heat pump and some better insulation. Hot water, shower flow rates, water reuse, greywater, rainwater harvesting and sustainable drainage are all part of the same building. A low-carbon home that guzzles water in one of the driest, most stressed regions in the country is not future-proof. It is just a shinier way of making the same mistake.

So the honest answer is uncomfortable because it is shared. Affinity Water must cut leakage faster. Customers must cut consumption. Developers must build homes that use less water in real life, not just in a calculator. Councils must demand water evidence early, visibly and publicly. And government must close the planning gap that leaves water companies outside the statutory-consultee list while the system waves through growth in places already under pressure.

The question for New Romney is therefore not simply whether 110 homes can fit on a field north of Cockreed Lane. The question is whether Kent can keep adding demand to a system where the water company leaks 59 Olympic pools a day and households still use far more than the country says we should. Until that question is answered in hard evidence, not soft brochure language, residents are right to look at every new “sustainable” housing plan and ask: sustainable for whom, and with what water?

Seen something the public should know about? Send tips, documents or concerns to TheShepwayVoxTeam(at)proton(dot)me. You can contact us in confidence, speak off the record in the first instance, and help us follow the evidence where it leads.

The Shepway Vox Team

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