Is there a hosepipe ban in my area?
Supplier statuses last checked .
We’re re-checking Welsh Water. Its last confirmed status is still shown here, because hiding a restriction we cannot currently re-read is the more expensive mistake, last confirmed 29 days ago.
11 UK water companies have a hosepipe ban in force right now. Whether one applies to you depends on one thing: which company supplies your water.
We only use the first part of your postcode, and we never store full postcodes.
Why your council is the wrong place to look
Hosepipe bans are declared by water companies under Section 76 of the Water Industry Act 1991, not by councils and not by the government. Supply boundaries follow Victorian-era infrastructure rather than council or postcode geography, so a single county is routinely served by two or three different companies, each free to declare, extend or lift a ban on its own.
That is why two houses on the same street can genuinely have different rules, and why “is there a ban in Hampshire” has no single answer: Southern Water’s ban covers its Hampshire customers while Portsmouth Water’s customers next door have no restriction at all.
The supplier named on your water bill decides which rules apply to you. Enter your postcode above and we resolve it for you, including split areas where more than one company is possible.
Live restriction status
Every UK water company. A ban is set by your supplier, not your council, so neighbours on the same street can have different rules.
Ban in force (11)
- Ban in forcefrom 11 July 2026
- Ban in forcefrom 11 July 2026
- Ban in force
- The Cambridge Water supply area: Cambridgeshire with parts of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, about 350,000 households.Ban in forcefrom 17 July 2026
- The entire Essex & Suffolk Water supply area, around 2 million customers.Ban in forcefrom 3 August 2026
- The entire South East Water supply area, under two separate legal notices. Kent has been in force since 00:01 on Friday ...Ban in forcefrom 3 July 2026
- The entire South West Water supply area: all of Devon and Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, and parts of Dorset and Somerse...Ban in forcefrom 8 August 2026
- Ban in forcefrom 10 July 2026
- The whole Thames Water drinking-water supply area, covering London, the Thames Valley and the home counties. Customers T...Ban in forcefrom 23 July 2026
- Ban in forcefrom 19 July 2026
- The entire Wessex Water water-supply area: Bath, Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire, with parts of Gloucestershire and Hamps...Ban in forcefrom 18 August 2026
No restrictions (5)
- No restrictions
- The United Utilities supply area across the North West: Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside...No restrictions
- No restrictions
Unconfirmed (7)
- The Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole conurbation and surrounding parts of east Dorset and west Hampshire, covering th...Unconfirmed
- Unconfirmed
- Unconfirmed
- The Portsmouth Water supply area across south east Hampshire and parts of West Sussex.Unconfirmed
- Unconfirmed
- Unconfirmed
- The South Staffs Water supply area: Staffordshire and parts of the West Midlands.Unconfirmed