MPs have urged councils to increase the number of public toilets amid concerns over a decline in provision.
The Commons communities and local government committee said there was a "consistent downward trend" in the number of public conveniences in use.
Wednesday's report called on local authorities to increase access to public toilets by using measures such as paying businesses to allow members of the public to use their facilities.
It also said that councils should draw up annual plans to improve quality and availability, with improved information about where the toilets were situated and the costs of using them.
And it criticised some councils for using the Disability Discrimination Act "as an excuse" for closing toilets when they could have been made accessible.
While the MPs welcomed moves to stop the decline in the number of toilets, they stopped short of saying that there should be a legal requirement on councils to provide them.
"We feel strongly that the recommendations made in the government's strategic guide should be acted upon by local authorities," the report said.
"For this reason, we recommend that the government imposes a duty on each local authority to develop a strategy on the provision of public toilets in their areas, which should include consultation with the local community and which should be reviewed annually.
"The duty of compiling and reviewing a public toilet strategy is a simple requirement that will go a long way towards achieving the right of people who live in and visit this country to have accessible and clean public toilets, wherever they live, work or visit."
Communities minister Baroness Andrews welcomed the report and said the government would issue a full response in due course.
"It's right that councils find the best way to provide public toilets in their communities to meet the needs of local people," she said.
She pointed out that ministers had already produced guidelines of what strategies are working in different parts of the country.
"It is for councils themselves to develop their own mix of most effective, local approach, making sure their public toilets are as good as they can be," she added.
Shadow local minister Bob Neill said warned that "the public now face the end of free public toilets in the same way that councils are being forced to cut other services like weekly rubbish collections".
"This comes at a time when Labour's reckless licensing laws are putting more people on the streets at night after hours of drinking," he said.
However, a spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said it was "ridiculous" to suggest that free toilets could disappear.
"The impact of the Licensing Act is often exaggerated and has not led to the wide-ranging changes some predicted," he added. "In fact, average closing time increased by only 21 minutes."
A Help the Aged report found recently that more than half of older people simply do not go out due to a lack of toilets in their area, and others avoid drinking so they won't need to go to the toilet.
And head of healthy ageing for Help the Aged Pamela Holmes welcomed the MPs' recommendation to develop a public toilet strategy but said local authorities should be legally obliged to provide toilets.
"The importance of toilets to public health and wellbeing needs to be recognised by all government departments and local authorities must do everything in their power to ensure people have 'somewhere to go'," she said.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd