Warning: Taps could run dry in ten years

TAPS will run dry within a decade if there is not major investment in Britain's antiquated water supply system.

- By David Williamson

This is the stark message from Environment Secretary Steve Reed, who warned that a complete modernisation is needed to avoid “catastrophic failure”.

He said: “People would turn on their tap to get drinking water and nothing would come out because it would be rationed.”

And he claimed his predecessors “left our water system in complete ruin” with Britain having “the highest level of water pollution and sewage in our waterways ever recorded”.

Mr Reed added: “People are furious about that because they remember when they were younger they used to be able to go and play in the river or the beach themselves”.