The South East England Regional Assembly should insist that housing developments in the driest areas are water neutral, a Friends of the Earth report has urged.

And to achieve this seemingly impossible task, developers should pay to install water saving equipment into existing homes, the green campaigners say.

Friends of the Earth South East campaigns co-ordinator, Brenda Pollack, said: "Urgent action is needed to tackle the water crisis. The Regional Assembly can play a vital role in this by insisting that any new developments in water-scarce areas must be water-neutral. Unless we take firm action, the situation will get worse."

The campaigners addressed the call to the South East Water Resources Forum's conference on water scarcity in the region.

The briefing set out the following key actions:

• Make new homes water neutral - and review housing figures. New homes built in the region must be constructed to the highest environmental standards. New developments in highly water-stressed areas must be `water neutral'. As well as ensuring that new homes are fitted with highly water-efficient appliances, developers should be obliged to `offset' the water their developments use by paying for water saving equipment to be installed in existing houses. The result would be that there would be no net increase in water use caused by the new development.
• Mend leaky pipes - there is still too much water being lost through leaking pipes. Southern Water loses 92 million litres of water a day through leakage. Thames Water is the worst culprit, losing an average of 915 million litres a day from their pipes.
• Prioritise Water reduction. People should be encouraged to use less water at home, work, school and everywhere. Simple things such as turning the tap off while brushing teeth, using grey water (water which has been used once but not contaminated, such as washing-up water), and fitting water saving devices in toilets and other domestic appliances.
• New water infrastructure should only be built as a last resort. New infrastructure (such as desalination plants and new reservoirs) should be seen as a last resort. Desalination plants and piping water across regions could take a lot of energy and emit huge amounts of carbon dioxide. They are also very expensive and these costs would be passed on to the consumer.