HTA ramps up water resilience messaging in Westminster
19 January 2026
Today (19 January 2026), the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) ramped up its water resilience messaging for 2026 with a Westminster roundtable hosted by Robbie Moore MP, Shadow Environment Minister.
Environmental Horticulture contributes £38 billion to the UK, provides more than 722,000 jobs and delivers a host of environmental, health and wellbeing benefits. To do this, the sector relies on water. And HTA members don’t take this for granted. According to soon-to-be published results in the HTA’s Water Consumption & Resilience Survey of Ornamental Growers & Garden Centre Retailers, the responses show that reliance on mains water has reduced and investment in reservoirs and water recapture has increased.
In 2025, the HTA’s work on water resilience included:
- Support and guidance for HTA members
- Regular member communications on water restrictions
- Water stakeholder briefing
- Representation on the National Drought Group and various sub-groups
- High-level political calls for action
- Responses to several relevant government consultations and Select Committee inquiries
- Hort Week comment piece from the HTA’s CEO, Fran Barnes
Last year, there was some positive progress on improving public messaging and terminology, as well as a commitment from various government agencies to take a longer-term approach to water resilience. However, there’s still more to do. As we begin 2026, securing a long-term UK water resilience strategy remains a priority for environmental horticulture. The HTA also wants to see the legislative and financial barriers to onsite water storage lifted so that more businesses can invest in reservoirs and rainwater-harvesting systems.
Jennifer Pheasey, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at the HTA, said:
"Today's roundtable was a great way to involve members in ramping up our messaging for 2026 on water resilience. Water is critical to our industry, but planning barriers, regulation and a general lack of understanding about environmental horticulture make this hugely complicated, time-consuming and costly for businesses trying to be as sustainable as possible in challenging economic and weather conditions.
“UK garden centres and ornamental growers are responsible for just 0.2% of the UK’s total water use. Despite this, environmental horticulture businesses operate within a system that offers little support. Today’s discussion highlighted ways in which policymakers can work with industry to overcome those barriers, enabling even more HTA members to invest in their water resilience."
Stuart Tickner, Site Operations Manager at Provender Nurseries, said:
“We need water to continue doing business, but there’s just no funding support available for environmental horticulture. If we’re going to continue providing the plants and trees that provide oxygen, capture carbon and help to tackle climate change, then policymakers need to work with us better to understand the benefits and needs of our sector. Today’s discussion was a welcome step in the right direction.
“2025 was a challenging year for growers – not just because of the rising cost of doing business – but because of the hot, dry Spring and Summer, which ultimately led to the introduction of water restrictions. The government, local authorities, and the water industry must learn from their mistakes and work with us to better understand our sector. Avoiding unhelpful terminology like ‘hosepipe ban’, for example, would make a huge difference as it penalises gardeners and retailers, who are the very people connected to solutions to environmental issues.”