Areas of Britain face running out of drinking water within ten years due to mass immigration, ministers have warned.
The Government has admitted that rapid population growth, crumbling infrastructure and climate pressure are pushing the country towards a water supply crisis.
Defra Minister Emma Hardy said: “Britain is running out of drinking water.
“In fact, because of years of underinvestment under the Conservatives, areas of the country will run out of drinking water by the middle of the next decade.”
Meanwhile, net migration has halved over the past year to 431,000, but only after hitting a record 906,000 in 2023.
Fears over shortages have forced Environment Secretary Steve Reed to seize control of the planning system and force through two new giant reservoirs.
The emergency projects in East Anglia and Lincolnshire have been declared “nationally significant”, and local authorities have been stripped of the power to stop them.
New laws will also fast-track all future reservoirs as the Government pushes to secure a stable supply of water.
Hardy said the Government is “taking these unprecedented steps to get reservoirs built and secure our drinking water supplies for the decades to come.”
The Lincolnshire reservoir, south of Sleaford, will pump out 166 million litres a day, enough for 500,000 homes or 664 million cups of tea.
The Fens reservoir, near Chatteris and March in Cambridgeshire, will supply 87 million litres to 250,000 homes in Britain’s driest region.
Both projects are entering consultation.
Lincolnshire’s reservoir is expected to be completed by 2040 and Cambridgeshire’s by 2036.
The two new reservoirs are part of a wider plan to create nine new sites, supplying an extra 670 million litres of water a day across England.
But Shadow Environment Secretary Victoria Atkins accused Labour of using the reservoirs to cover up its “failures” on migration and farming.
“With Labour’s shambolic farming policy and failure to grip immigration, it’s no wonder they’re making a panicked announcement about water supplies running low,” Atkins blasted.
She also criticised ministers for using rising population as an excuse to “concrete over the green belt” – just weeks after Angela Rayner backed London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s scheme to “actively explore” concreting over swathes of London’s protected land.