Ahead of our upcoming Insights into local government: 2023 report, we have published an article focusing on how councils are reporting on their compliance with drinking water standards in 2021/22 and 2022/23.

Overall, the 67 councils that supply drinking water achieved just under 60% of their targets for water supply measures in 2022/23. It is a lower result than for the previous two years, when about 66% of the targets were achieved.

The lowest performance in 2021/22 and 2022/23 was for the “safety of drinking water” measures. Councils achieved just 33% of the targets for these measures in 2022/23 – a significant decline from 2021/22, when councils achieved 48.3%.

The targets for drinking water can be missed for a range of reasons. Our 2021 local government insights report noted that this does not necessarily mean there is an issue with water quality or that the water is unsafe to drink. However, a missed target for drinking water supply can be a warning of potentially serious problems with water quality and safety.

We encourage councils to investigate the reasons for non-compliance with drinking water standards and prioritise remedial actions, particularly where this could affect water quality and safety. We also encourage councils to talk to the councils consistently achieving their targets. There could be practices they could adopt to help improve their own performance.

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