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Bristol Water has a Temporary Use Ban, the legal name for a hosepipe ban, in force, with no end date announced, so it runs until further notice. The Bristol Water supply area covering Bristol and the surrounding area. Bristol Water supplies 1.2 million people in total. A watering can, a bucket and water you have collected yourself are never restricted by a Temporary Use Ban.
Bristol Water's own customer FAQ states: 'Bristol Water does not have a hosepipe ban in place, we will continue to monitor the situation closely and ensure that any changes are communicated to customers.' Bristol Water is a trading name of South West Water Limited, which transferred the business under Schedule 2 of the Water Industry Act 1991 on 1 February 2023. South West Water has a Temporary Use Ban in force from 8 August 2026, but its notice names Devon, Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and parts of Dorset and Somerset, and does not cover the Bristol Water area. See the 15 August 2026 pass in the file header for the full reasoning and sources.
You cannot use a hosepipe or sprinkler at home. A watering can or bucket is still fine, and the maximum fine is £1,000.
We are an unofficial tracker, so Bristol Water’s own notice is the version that legally applies to you.
Bristol Water supplies 1.2 million people in the city of Bristol and the surrounding area, including parts of Somerset and south Gloucestershire. It is a water-only company sitting inside Wessex Water's sewerage area, so almost every household here receives water from one company and sewerage from another.
That produces a specific confusion in the BS postcodes and along the Somerset border, where Bristol Water, Wessex Water and, further west, South West Water all operate. Wessex Water is the larger name and the one most people recognise, but in Bristol itself it is not the water supplier. The water supply line of the bill settles which company's position applies.
Source: Bristol Water
Bristol Water is a surface-water company: its supplies come from named reservoirs and lakes in the Mendips and the Chew valley, including Chew Valley Lake, Blagdon Lake, Cheddar Reservoir and Barrow Tanks, and it publishes reservoir storage levels for them. A system of that shape responds to a dry winter and a dry spring within months, which is why storage is the figure to watch here rather than groundwater.
One distinction matters for how this page reads. Bristol Water runs a year-round water efficiency campaign, under the heading that every drop counts, which asks customers to use less water during hot, dry weather and increased demand. That is general efficiency marketing, not a drought appeal tied to a dated resource position, and this site deliberately does not record it as a voluntary appeal. Its status here rests on the absence of any restriction notice on the company's own site, which is the weakest footing available, so it carries the shorter 24-hour freshness window.
Source: Bristol Water
A Temporary Use Ban does not prohibit hosepipes in general. It prohibits the eleven uses at s.76(2) of the Water Industry Act 1991, starting with watering a garden, cleaning a private motor vehicle, watering plants on domestic or other non-commercial premises, cleaning a private leisure boat and running through pools, ponds, fountains, walls, windows, paths and patios. Anything outside those eleven is untouched.
A watering can, a bucket and water you have collected yourself are never restricted by a Temporary Use Ban. Neither is water that never came through the mains: a hosepipe fed from a butt, a borehole or grey water sits outside the notice, because it attaches to the water rather than to the hosepipe.
Each company publishes its own concessions on top of that statutory floor, and they differ enough that one company's list is no guide to another's. We have not verified Bristol Water's specific concessions from its own notice, so this page does not list any: check the exemptions section of the notice itself before relying on one.
More: what you can still do, newly laid turf, drip irrigation, business and trade rules.
Breaching a Temporary Use Ban is a criminal offence, not a civil matter. The maximum is level 3 on the standard scale, currently £1,000, under section 76(5) of the Water Industry Act 1991. It is not a fixed penalty: Bristol 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.
Bristol Water has not restricted hosepipe use in recent seasons, including through 2022, when South West Water restricted use in Devon and Cornwall to the west. The Mendip reservoir system is small in national terms but it serves a compact and densely populated area, and the company's own communications concentrate on demand reduction rather than on restriction. The recurring risk in this area is therefore a dry winter followed by a hot spring, which draws storage down before summer demand arrives.
Source: Bristol Water
Yes. Bristol Water has a Temporary Use Ban in force. The Bristol Water supply area covering Bristol and the surrounding area.
No end date is announced: it runs until further notice. Companies lift restrictions after sustained rain, not on a fixed date.
Not with a hosepipe, sprinkler or pressure washer fed from the mains. A can or bucket is fine, as is a hosepipe fed from a butt or borehole. Commercial car washes are unrestricted.
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: Bristol 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. Bristol 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. Bristol Water supplies the bristol water supply area covering bristol and the surrounding area.
No. Bristol Water runs a year-round water efficiency campaign asking customers to use less during hot, dry weather. It is not a Temporary Use Ban and not a dated drought appeal: nothing is prohibited and there is no fine. A restriction would be a legal notice under section 76 of the Water Industry Act 1991.
The supply area covers Bristol and reaches into north Somerset and south Gloucestershire, taking in Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon and the Chew valley, wrapped on all sides by Wessex Water's larger sewerage area.
1 outward postcode district resolve to Bristol 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: Bristol. 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: Bristol Water
Bristol Water does not publish drinking water quality data on the water industry's open data platform, so there is no hardness figure to read. We have asked them for it in writing. In the meantime their own customer pages are the place to check.
Source of record: Bristol Water’s own status page, last checked 16 September 2026. We do not publish a hosepipe ban on the strength of a news report; every status rests on a primary source.