Spelman holds drought summit

Speaking to BBC Radio 4 this morning, Spelman said: "We're bringing everybody together today – the water industry, all the water users, the agriculture industry, the horticulturists, and also the green groups who are obviously concerned that we protect nature – because it's important actually we think about what preventative measures we can take now."

But Spelman said the rollout of smart meters was not necessarily the right preventative action. She also said transporting water from wetter parts of the UK to those areas most affected by shortfalls was too expensive. Scotland has seen its wettest winter for 100 years.

"People often say 'well why don't you just build a pipeline from the North West to the South East?' but it isn't that simple because water is heavy and costly to transport," she said.

Instead, businesses and consumers are being asked to reduce the amount of water they use.

Since the 1990s, the water companies have managed to achieve 36 per cent less leakages, according to Spelman. 

Meanwhile, tighter controls on how much water can be taken from rivers by water companies, businesses and agriculture, are also paying dividends. Last month, the Environment Agency said some 55 billion litres of water each year was being returned to the environment – equivalent to the annual domestic water usage of 850,000 people. 

The Environment Agency said it was continuing to work to restore water levels at around 210 locations, and funding has been secured so that water companies can improve 150 sites by 2015.

But the danger of water shortages still runs high in some parts of England. Rivers such as the Kennett in Wiltshire and Berkshire have been dry since September 2011. And Spelman this morning said a hosepipe ban, which did not materialise last year, was now a real possibility this summer. 

Decades of unsustainable abstraction from rivers by businesses are behind many of the problems faced today. Businesses across the country use billions of litres of water each day in their operations – much of it taken from rivers. 

The Government outlined how it plans to address this and other problems in a 100-page White Paper on water last year. Among the measures being proposed is reform of the abstraction regime. 

The Government promised to publish a draft Water Bill in "early 2012", however, it has not yet done so and some green groups have accused it of dragging its feet.