WATER conservation features should be incorporated into the thousands of new homes to be built in East Anglia over the next 20 years to reduce the pressure on the region's environment, according to the Suffolk Wildlife Trust.

WATER conservation features should be incorporated into the thousands of new homes to be built in East Anglia over the next 20 years to reduce the pressure on the region's environment, according to the Suffolk Wildlife Trust.

Nearly 500,000 new homes are scheduled to be built in the eastern counties up to the year 2021 with the forecast for Suffolk being 58,600 and Essex getting a further 131,000.

East Anglia is the driest region in the UK and in some recent years aquatic and wetland wildlife has suffered along with householders who have faced restrictions on water usage.

The Suffolk Wildife Trust is warning that the building of thousands of new homes and the growth in the region's poulation will put further strain on water resources.

"It is extremely important that environmentally friendly features are incorporated into new housing stock and it is something we would like to see made a condition of development," said Audrey Boyle, trust spokeswoman.

Paul Pilgrim, contracts manager for Bellway Homes on the former Ipswich Airfield site, said one of the demonstration homes in the first phase of the development had included a "brown water" system.

This had involed the recycling of bath and hand-basin water for use in flushing the toilet.

However, while the option had been available to the buyers of the 1,000 plus homes on the former airfield, no request had been received for installation.

"The problem is the extra cost although this would be recouped from water bills over a long period," he said.