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Southern Water has a Temporary Use Ban, the legal name for a hosepipe ban, in force since 10 July 2026, with no end date announced, so it runs until further notice. The Hampshire and Isle of Wight supply area ONLY, about 1 million customers. Southern Water's Sussex and Kent customers are not covered. Southern Water supplies 4.6 million people in total. A watering can, a bucket and water you have collected yourself are never restricted by a Temporary Use Ban.
Re-confirmed 3 August 2026 from Southern Water's own homepage banner: 'Hosepipe restrictions are in place for customers in Hampshire and on the Isle of Wight.' In force since 10 July 2026. Both the deep page and the homepage refuse automated clients, so this record is re-checked by hand. An older 2025 'ban has now been lifted' page still surfaces in search: that is the 2025 ban, not this one.
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 Southern Water’s own notice is the version that legally applies to you.
We are re-checking the status of Southern Water's proposed Non-Essential Use Ban for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Check the company's own notice.
This is separate from the household hosepipe ban and does not change whether you can use a hosepipe at home. Southern Water’s own notice, where you can read the consultation.
Southern Water serves 4.6 million people across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent and both Sussexes. The restriction it declared in July 2026 reaches only Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, roughly a million customers, and Sussex and Kent are outside it.
It is also the most misread supply area in the country: Southern Water is the sewerage company for almost all of Kent and Sussex, while South East Water supplies the drinking water there under its own notice.
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight only. A postcode matching neither list below resolves to "check with your supplier", never to a guess either way.
Source: Southern Water
Southern Water's Hampshire supplies come substantially from two chalk rivers, the Test and the Itchen, and its abstraction from them is licensed with environmental conditions that bite in dry weather. When it restricted use across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in 2025 it said the purpose was to reduce pressure on those chalk streams, and the same hydrology sits behind the 2026 notice.
Its published drought plan sets out what comes next if the position deteriorates, and this company has been further along that sequence than most: in 2025 it applied for a drought order restricting non-essential use, a step beyond a hosepipe restriction that needs government consent rather than the company's own decision.
Source: Southern 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 then publishes its own concessions, and they differ enough that one list is no guide to another. These 6 are Southern Water's:
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: Southern 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.
Southern Water runs a report a breach form and publishes its exemptions separately. Its concessions are worded more tightly than most: the turf allowance below has to be requested rather than assumed.
More: fines and enforcement in detail.
Source: Southern Water
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight were under restrictions through the second half of 2025: the notice took effect at 09:00 on 21 July 2025 and was removed after wetter September and October weather. Southern Water credited part of the recovery to the 1,700 leaks its teams fixed while it ran, and it restricted the same two areas in 2022.
Recorded here this season for Southern Water: a restriction beginning 10 July 2026, running 68 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: Southern Water
Yes. Southern Water has a Temporary Use Ban in force, in effect since 10 July 2026. Hampshire and the Isle of Wight only
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: Southern 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. Southern 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. Southern Water supplies the hampshire and isle of wight supply area only, about 1 million customers.
No: hampshire and the isle of wight only. Being a Southern Water customer is not the same as being inside the restriction, so check the coverage section above or your postcode.
That page refers to 2025. Southern Water's 2025 restriction began on 21 July 2025 and was lifted later that year. It is still online, still ranks in search, and says nothing about the current season.
Sewerage covers Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent and both Sussexes; drinking water only parts of it.
9 outward postcode districts resolve to Southern 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: Brighton, Southampton. 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: Southern Water
Southern Water publishes water quality data openly, but not a usable total hardness figure: it publishes the calcium ion only, with an empty units column; calcium is not total hardness and no unit is stated. We have asked them for it in writing. In the meantime their own customer pages are the place to check.
Source of record: Southern Water’s own status page, last checked 16 September 2026; the company's page is dated 10 July 2026. We do not publish a hosepipe ban on the strength of a news report; every status rests on a primary source.