Thames Water has a Temporary Use Ban, the legal name for a hosepipe ban, in force since 23 July 2026, with no end date announced, so it runs until further notice. The whole Thames Water drinking-water supply area, covering London, the Thames Valley and the home counties. Customers Thames Water serves for wastewater only, and customers supplied with drinking water by another company, are not affected. Thames Water supplies 10.1 million people in total. A watering can, a bucket and water you have collected yourself are never restricted by a Temporary Use Ban.
The ban covers the roughly 10.1 million customers Thames Water supplies with drinking water. It is NOT the larger 16 million figure that circulates in coverage: that number includes wastewater-only customers, who are not restricted. Reports giving an August start date, a 16 million or 29.4 million figure, or a Yorkshire ban following on 26 August are recycled 2022 and 2025 stories.
You cannot use a hosepipe or sprinkler at home. A watering can or bucket is still fine, and the maximum fine is £1,000.
Started
23 July 2026
Ends
Until further notice
Areas covered: The whole Thames Water drinking-water supply area, covering London, the Thames Valley and the home counties. Customers Thames Water serves for wastewater only, and customers supplied with drinking water by another company, are not affected.
TWThames Water·Status checked just now·page dated 24 July 2026
We are an unofficial tracker, so Thames Water’s own notice is the version that legally applies to you.
Coverage: what is in, and what is out
Thames Water supplies drinking water to 10.1 million people across London, the Thames Valley and the home counties. The number that matters is which 10.1 million: Thames Water handles wastewater for around 16 million, a figure often quoted as if it were the supply area. Hosepipe rules follow the DRINKING WATER supplier, so if Thames Water takes your sewage away while another company supplies your taps, it is that company's rules you are under.
That distinction is live across the outer supply area, where Affinity Water supplies drinking water inside the Thames Water sewerage footprint in parts of north and west London, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Two neighbours on one street can sit under different notices.
Thames Water pointed to weather and demand rather than to a single named reservoir. Its notice cites prolonged dry weather and recent heatwaves, very low rainfall levels, higher than normal water demand, and forecasts for continued hot and dry weather. It does not publish a reservoir percentage on the notice page itself.
What it does not publish on that page is a reservoir figure or a named source, which is worth noting because Thames Water draws on the Thames and Lee alongside its London reservoir storage and its groundwater, and a company with that mix can be short of treated water at peak times without being short of raw water in storage.
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 Thames Water's:
Watering with a watering can or bucket
Drip or trickle irrigation fitted with a pressure reducing valve and timer
Water from a water butt or other non-mains source
Blue Badge holders and Priority Services Register customers
Newly laid turf, for a limited period after laying
Commercial use where the hosepipe is directly needed for the business
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: Thames 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.
Thames Water has restricted use recently enough that its 2022 and 2025 coverage is still indexed and still mistaken for current. Its own notice page carried a last updated date of Friday 24 July 2026 when this page was verified, so that is the live document.
Recorded here this season for Thames Water: a restriction beginning 23 July 2026, running 55 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.
Is there a hosepipe ban in the Thames Water area right now?
Yes. Thames Water has a Temporary Use Ban in force, in effect since 23 July 2026. The whole Thames Water drinking-water supply area, covering London, the Thames Valley and the home counties.
When does the Thames Water hosepipe ban end?
No end date is announced: it runs until further notice. Companies lift restrictions after sustained rain, not on a fixed date.
Can I water my garden or wash my car during the Thames Water ban?
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.
What is the fine for breaking a Thames Water hosepipe ban?
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: Thames Water would have to prosecute, and starts with a warning.
Am I exempt if I am on the Priority Services Register?
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. Thames Water's own notice sets the wording.
How do I know if Thames Water supplies my address?
Your water bill, on the water supply line rather than the sewerage line: in much of England and Wales those are two different companies. Thames Water supplies the whole thames water drinking-water supply area, covering london, the thames valley and the home counties.
Thames Water takes my sewage but someone else supplies my water. Am I affected?
No. Thames Water's notice says wastewater-only customers are not affected: it applies to the people it supplies with drinking water. If Affinity Water or SES Water supplies your tap, that company's position governs.
Does the restriction cover 16 million people?
No. It covers the roughly 10.1 million customers supplied with drinking water. The 16 million figure counts wastewater customers, who are not restricted, and 29.4 million comes from recycled coverage of earlier years.
Counties and areas Thames Water serves
The drinking-water area covers Greater London and reaches out through Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, with slivers in Kent and Essex. Affinity Water, SES Water and Anglian Water all supply water inside or alongside it.
30 outward postcode districts resolve to Thames 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: Oxford, Reading, Guildford. 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.
Thames 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: Thames Water’s own status page, last checked 16 September 2026; the company's page is dated 24 July 2026. We do not publish a hosepipe ban on the strength of a news report; every status rests on a primary source.