The construction industry understands this pressure better than most. Every piece of infrastructure creates water demand - from groundworks and cement mixing during construction, to the daily water use of homes, offices and commercial buildings throughout their lifetimes. As development continues at scale, these demands mount up – at speed.
Against this backdrop, the sector is already making important changes – adopting real-time monitoring, data-driven management and closed-loop and recycled water systems to reduce consumption, lower costs and improve resilience, while ensuring projects are built sustainably.
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Yet the challenge these solutions address is growing fast. Demand for water in the UK has never been higher, and the gap between supply and need continues to widen. In England alone, public water supplies are projected to fall short by 5 billion litres per day by 2055, risking higher bills, environmental damage and reduced resilience to drought.
Despite this, most people and businesses still have little visibility of their own water use. Nearly 94% of people significantly underestimate their daily consumption, making meaningful action difficult. Closing this knowledge gap is essential if the UK is to reduce demand and protect its water resources.
A resilient water future
The construction sector is a vital part of the solution. The tools and approaches already in use could be applied at scale to existing homes, businesses and communities. By extending these innovations beyond new developments, the sector can play a central role in helping the UK understand, manage and reduce water use – and in securing a more resilient water future.
Water: Resilience & Innovation for the Built Environment
Ofwat’s Water Innovation Fund is sponsoring the Building Centre’s upcoming ‘Water: Resilience & Innovation for the Built Environment’ exhibition from 23 January to 10 April 2026.
The 11-week event will explore innovations and solutions shaping the future of water in architecture, engineering and urban design.
The exhibition will showcase cutting-edge technologies, pioneering projects and ideas that are driving a new, water-wise approach to building for resilience and sustainability – including those that have been enabled and supported by the Ofwat Innovation Fund.
But how do we translate this ambition into a reality? This is where the Water Efficiency Lab comes in: a new £25 million challenge-led competition from Ofwat, seeking to unlock and scale innovations like those seen in the construction sector to reduce water usage across England and Wales.
In its first year, the competition will award innovators £5 million in total funding, and up to £1.5 million for individual projects, to develop new technologies, tools and solutions that enable people and businesses to understand their water use and take steps to reduce it.
The focus is not just on better data, but on actionable insight – solutions that help users understand how much water they are using, where it is being consumed and what practical steps they can take to reduce it. From smart data platforms and appliance-level monitoring, to leak detection systems and behavioural feedback tools, the Lab is seeking innovations that can drive real, lasting change.
Importantly, entries are also encouraged to consider properties that are unmetered, hard to meter or traditionally overlooked, ensuring solutions are inclusive and widely applicable.
How to enter
Construction industry innovators have an opportunity to lead from the front, taking innovations in their own sector and turning them into practical, scalable solutions that benefit people, businesses and the environment for decades to come.
The competition opened to entrants on 25 November 2025 and will remain open until 10 March. Winners will be announced in June 2026, with funding awarded to the most promising projects.
Submit an entry or learn more about the Water Efficiency Lab here.
Further themed competitions will follow in 2026-30.
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