Hosepipe ban rules for businesses
Temporary Use Bans restrict domestic uses of a hosepipe. Where the hosepipe is directly needed for a business, the use is commercial and sits outside the ban, which is why the car wash stays open while the driveway wash at home is prohibited.
Where the line sits
Every category at section 76(2) of the Water Industry Act 1991 is framed around domestic or non-commercial use: a private motor vehicle, a domestic pond, a garden. A use that is genuinely part of carrying on a business, washing customers’ vehicles, watering stock for sale, cleaning as a paid service, testing a system you have installed, is not in those categories.
Two cautions. First, a business is not a badge that exempts the owner’s own domestic use: the van can be washed if it is genuinely a work vehicle requirement, the family car cannot. Second, companies ask businesses to use water responsibly during a drought even where no restriction applies, and some voluntary appeals are aimed at exactly that.
What each company allows
The statutory list is the floor. Each company publishes its own concessions on top, and they differ, so this table is driven by each company’s published exemptions rather than a single national answer.
| Company (ban in force) | Commercial-use wording in the notice |
|---|---|
| Essex & Suffolk Water | Not stated in the concessions we have verified. Check Essex & Suffolk Water’s own notice before relying on an exemption. |
| South East Water | Commercial use where the hosepipe is directly needed for the business |
| Thames Water | Commercial use where the hosepipe is directly needed for the business |
| Anglian Water | Not stated in the concessions we have verified. Check Anglian Water’s own notice before relying on an exemption. |
| Southern Water | Not stated in the concessions we have verified. Check Southern Water’s own notice before relying on an exemption. |
| Affinity Water | Not stated in the concessions we have verified. Check Affinity Water’s own notice before relying on an exemption. |
| Cambridge Water | Not stated in the concessions we have verified. Check Cambridge Water’s own notice before relying on an exemption. |
| South West Water | Not stated in the concessions we have verified. Check South West Water’s own notice before relying on an exemption. |
| Welsh Water | Not stated in the concessions we have verified. Check Welsh Water’s own notice before relying on an exemption. |
| Wessex Water | Not stated in the concessions we have verified. Check Wessex Water’s own notice before relying on an exemption. |
| Bristol Water | Not stated in the concessions we have verified. Check Bristol Water’s own notice before relying on an exemption. |
Common questions
Can a commercial car wash keep operating?
Yes. Cleaning vehicles as a business is commercial use, which a domestic Temporary Use Ban does not restrict. The statutory category is cleaning a PRIVATE motor vehicle, and businesses washing customers' cars are outside it.
Can a window cleaner still use water-fed poles?
Yes, on commercial jobs: the hosepipe is directly needed for the business. The statutory restriction targets cleaning walls or windows of DOMESTIC premises by the householder.
Can a garden centre or grower water stock?
Yes. Watering plants that are the business's stock is commercial use. The restricted category is watering plants on domestic or other non-commercial premises.
I run a business from home. Which side am I on?
The use, not the address, decides. Watering your own garden is domestic and restricted; using a hosepipe for the paid work itself is commercial. If an inspector could reasonably read your use as domestic, expect to be asked; keep it clearly attributable to the business.
Can a company restrict non-domestic use at all?
Under a Temporary Use Ban, no; it is limited to the 2010 Order categories, which are domestic in character. In a more severe drought a company can apply to the Secretary of State for a Drought Order or a Non-Essential Use Ban, which CAN restrict commercial use. An application is not a decision. Any that are applied for, granted or in force are listed at the top of this page and on the company's own page.
Temporary Use Bans are made under section 76 of the Water Industry Act 1991, which lists the eleven prohibited uses at s.76(2). The Water Use (Temporary Bans) Order 2010 (SI 2010/2231) defines them.We are an independent tracker, not a water company or a regulator; your supplier’s own notice is the version that legally applies to you.