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We cannot confirm Cambridge 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 Cambridge 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: Cambridge Water is part of the South Staffs Water group but supplies a separate region. The South Staffs supply area is NOT covered by this ban. Cambridge Water's supply area is defined by civil parishes and water quality zones, not by postcode, so no CB or PE postcode can be assigned to it with certainty.
We could not confirm Cambridge 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 Cambridge Water’s own notice is the version that legally applies to you.
Cambridge Water supplies about 350,000 people in Cambridgeshire with parts of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and its restriction covers all of it. The test the company gives is billing rather than geography: if your household is billed by Cambridge Water for your water services, the notice applies to you.
That phrasing is deliberate, because this supply area cannot be described by postcode: it is bounded by civil parish and water quality zone, so a postcode check here has to name both Cambridge Water and Anglian Water rather than pick one.
Source: Cambridge 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. Cambridge 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: Cambridge 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.
Cambridge Water publishes its statutory notice as a standalone document, along with separate FAQ sets for household and non-household customers and a large-print version. Its exemptions cover customers with serious medical conditions or disabilities, households on the Priority Services Register, and businesses where hosepipe use is essential to operations.
More: fines and enforcement in detail.
Source: Cambridge Water
This is the first temporary hosepipe restriction Cambridge Water has introduced in more than thirty years: it dates the last one to the UK drought of 1995. That means there is no recent local precedent to reason from, and the 1995 restriction predates the current statutory framework, which arrived with the Water Use (Temporary Bans) Order 2010.
Recorded here this season for Cambridge Water: a restriction beginning 17 July 2026, running 15 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: Cambridge Water
We could not confirm Cambridge Water's current status from its own notice, so this site asserts nothing either way. Check Cambridge Water's own notice before using a hosepipe.
Because we could not confirm it against Cambridge 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 Cambridge 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 Cambridge 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: Cambridge 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. Cambridge 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. Cambridge Water supplies the cambridge water supply area: cambridgeshire with parts of bedfordshire and hertfordshire, about 350,000 households.
Not necessarily. Cambridge Water's area is defined by civil parishes and water quality zones, and Anglian Water supplies much of the same CB and PE territory under a separate notice. Your bill is the reliable test.
No. They are one group with two separate supply regions and separate water resources. The Cambridge notice covers the Cambridge region only.
The supply area centres on Cambridge and reaches into south Cambridgeshire, north Hertfordshire and east Bedfordshire, bounded by parish and water quality zone rather than by postcode district, with Anglian Water supplying much of the surrounding area.
2 outward postcode districts resolve to Cambridge 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: Cambridge. 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: Cambridge Water
Source of record: Cambridge Water’s own status page, last checked 30 July 2026. We do not publish a hosepipe ban on the strength of a news report; every status rests on a primary source.