Thames Water Hosepipe Ban Status 2026

Coverage Area

Thames Water supplies drinking water across London, the Thames Valley and the home counties, including Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey and parts of Gloucestershire. The Temporary Use Ban covers its whole water-supply area. Customers who receive only wastewater services from Thames Water, and customers supplied with water by another company, are NOT covered.

The ban covers the roughly 10.1 million customers Thames Water supplies with drinking water. This is not Thames Water's larger figure of around 16 million, which includes customers it serves for wastewater only; those customers are not affected by the ban.

Not sure of your supplier or whether your address is covered? Use the postcode checker. Official site: Thames Water Utilities Ltd.

Drought Outlook

This is a demand-and-supply ban rather than one caused by empty reservoirs. Thames Water reports demand around 10 per cent above normal across the Thames Valley and home counties and 7 per cent above normal in London, about 100 million extra litres a day, after the region received only 40 per cent of average rainfall this spring and experienced three heatwaves. The company had spent late June and July on a voluntary advisory, the escalation we had been tracking, before moving to a formal TUB as the next stage of its drought plan. Thames Water is England's largest water company and this is the single biggest TUB of summer 2026 by customers covered. The environmental regulator is the Environment Agency, which has recorded low reservoir and river levels across central and southern England. As with every UK company, the TUB itself is Thames Water's own Section 76 decision, not the Environment Agency's.

UK Lawn Care During Thames Water Restrictions

Once the ban is in force you can still keep a lawn alive with a watering can in the early morning, and Thames Water explicitly still allows buckets and water butts. An established lawn does not need it in any case: UK lawns are cool-season grasses that go dormant and brown in a heatwave to protect their crowns, then green up within weeks of autumn rain. Raise the mower to 50 to 60 millimetres, stop feeding, and leave the clippings. A water butt fitted now pays for itself the moment the next ban lands.

See our keep your lawn alive under a hosepipe ban guide, and overseeding during a hosepipe ban for the September window.

Counties Thames Water Serves

County guides exist for the areas listed below. For any other part of the Thames Water area, use the postcode checker rather than a county page:

Not sure your area is covered? Is there a hosepipe ban in my area? or use the postcode checker.