State-Led Reservoir Building Proposed Over Private Sector Solutions

Referencing a recent letter, the contributors highlight how 19th-century local councils erected extensive water-storage networks, with one borough constructing five reservoirs within four decades of its 1868 incorporation. By the late 1800s, hundreds of urban councils operated their own water systems, and as late as 1971 the Queen opened Scammonden dam, a collaboration between Huddersfield Corporation Waterworks and the Ministry of Transport.

Facing a pressing need for additional reservoirs, the authors propose that the Burnham government assign this responsibility to mayors and combined authorities instead of relying on private companies. They also suggest that heat-exchange shafts could be shared to capture underground heat, and that locating datacentres near new housing estates would allow waste cooling water to heat homes. These ideas could be incorporated during estate construction without significantly raising individual house costs.