Businesses are being warned they face increased water bills if they fail to cut down on the amount they waste every day.

Water bills have risen by an average of 18% over the past five years but government body Envirowise is encouraging firms to reduce the amount they waste if they want to avoid even more expensive bills in the future.

The body has announced the ‘Rippleeffect' programme to help businesses improve water inefficiency and claims it is possible for a company that has not previously considered its water use to make savings of up to 30%, increasing to 50% with the use of long-term water-saving projects.

"There are many simple low and no-cost ways of improving water efficiency including fixing dripping taps and installing water-saving devices," said Mary Leonard, a director at Envirowise.

"A tap dripping two drops a second across a year, for example, could waste nearly 10,000 litres of water."