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We cannot confirm Anglian Water's current position from its own published notice, so this page asserts nothing about it. That is deliberate: a wrong all-clear here would send someone out with a hosepipe under a restriction carrying a fine of up to 1,000 pounds, and a wrong restriction would cost them a brown lawn for no reason. Check Anglian Water's own notice, linked below, before using a hosepipe. Everything else on this page, the supply area, the exclusions, the penalties and the history, is stable information that does not depend on today's status.
What this site last recorded, on 30 July 2026, and which is what we can no longer stand behind today: Anglian Water's first hosepipe ban since 2012. Hartlepool (TS24 to TS27) is supplied by Hartlepool Water, a separate Anglian Water entity with its own water resource zone, and is explicitly EXCLUDED from this ban.
We could not confirm Anglian Water’s current status from their own page, so we are not asserting a restriction. Check with your supplier before using a hosepipe.
We are an unofficial tracker, so Anglian Water’s own notice is the version that legally applies to you.
Anglian Water's restriction covers its whole supply area across the East of England, about 5 million people from Lincolnshire and Norfolk down through Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Essex, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire, with one carved-out exception 200 miles north in Hartlepool.
The other boundary problem is Essex and Suffolk, where Essex & Suffolk Water, a separate company in the Northumbrian Water group, supplies large parts of the CO, IP, NR and SS districts that look like Anglian territory on a map.
Source: Anglian Water
The sections on why a restriction was declared, and on what it restricts, are not shown here: with the status unconfirmed there is nothing verified to describe, and inventing it would be worse than leaving it out. Anglian Water's own notice is the authoritative statement of its current position.
If a Temporary Use Ban were in force here, breaching it would be a criminal offence. The maximum penalty is a fine of £1,000 on summary conviction, under section 76(5) of the Water Industry Act 1991. It is not a fixed penalty: Anglian Water cannot issue one and would have to prosecute. In practice companies publish an enforcement policy that starts with a warning, so a first breach realistically produces a letter.
Anglian Water publishes a Temporary Use Ban enforcement policy as a separate document from the statutory notice, and a dedicated exceptions page. Customers who cannot safely use a watering can or bucket because of a health condition, disability or additional support need may be covered by an exception, as may Priority Services Register customers.
More: fines and enforcement in detail.
Source: Anglian Water
This is Anglian Water's first hosepipe restriction since 2012, a fourteen-year gap. The exclusion of Hartlepool is the part worth understanding, because it explains the shape of the notice: Hartlepool sits in its own water resource zone, so the pressures behind this restriction do not reach it.
Recorded here this season for Anglian Water: a restriction beginning 11 July 2026, running 21 days so far. Events are permanent. When one ends we set its end date and keep it, so this page can still say what ran and for how long.
Source: Anglian Water
We could not confirm Anglian Water's current status from its own notice, so this site asserts nothing either way. Check Anglian Water's own notice before using a hosepipe.
Because we could not confirm it against Anglian Water's own published notice, and this site does not assert a status it cannot stand behind. A wrong all-clear costs a reader up to 1,000 pounds; a wrong ban costs them a brown lawn. Neither is acceptable, so it says so instead.
We cannot confirm Anglian Water's current position, so this page will not tell you either way. A watering can or bucket is safe whatever the status, because a Temporary Use Ban never restricts them. For a hosepipe, check Anglian Water's own notice first.
Up to 1,000 pounds, imposed by a magistrates' court on conviction under section 76 of the Water Industry Act 1991. It is not a fixed penalty: Anglian Water would have to prosecute, and starts with a warning.
Usually, but not automatically everywhere. Most companies exempt Priority Services Register customers and Blue Badge holders who cannot reasonably use a can or bucket, some automatically and some on registration. Anglian Water's own notice sets the wording.
Your water bill, on the water supply line rather than the sewerage line: in much of England and Wales those are two different companies. Anglian Water supplies the anglian water supply area across the east of england, with hartlepool explicitly excluded.
Anglian Water's coverage is not uniform, and the last restriction we recorded for it covered only part of its area: Whole supply area except Hartlepool. Whether anything applies today is unconfirmed here, so check your postcode and Anglian Water's own notice.
No. Anglian Water's notice explicitly excludes Hartlepool. Your water comes from Hartlepool Water, which has its own water resource zone.
The supply area covers Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and part of Nottinghamshire, plus Hartlepool through a separate company and a separate resource zone.
13 outward postcode districts resolve to Anglian Water here, as primary supplier or as one candidate among several. An outward code is the part before the space: SO14, not SO14 3AB.
Town pages here: Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford, Peterborough, Northampton and 1 more. Each resolves from its own outcode rather than this company's headline status, which matters most where a town sits outside a restriction its supplier has declared.
Source: Anglian Water
Source of record: Anglian Water’s own status page, last checked 30 July 2026; the company's page is dated 17 July 2026. We do not publish a hosepipe ban on the strength of a news report; every status rests on a primary source.