Wessex Water Hosepipe Ban Status 2026

Coverage Area

Wessex Water supplies the South West inland region, covering Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and parts of Hampshire and Gloucestershire. The Temporary Use Ban applies to all customers in that region who Wessex Water supplies with water. Bristol Water is a separate company, so a Bristol address is not automatically a Wessex Water one.

Wessex Water supplies approximately 2.8 million people. It has not published a separate figure for how many are covered by this ban and we will not estimate one: the company defines it as all of the customers it supplies with water.

The ban follows Wessex Water's supply network rather than county lines, and several counties it serves are shared with other companies. Dorset and Somerset are also partly supplied by South West Water, whose own ban has been in force since 8 August on different terms, and Bristol Water is separate again. Wessex Water publishes a postcode checker on its hosepipe ban page, which is the definitive answer for an individual address.

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

Drought Outlook

Wessex Water's region sits in the Environment Agency's Wessex area, which the EA has classed as in drought. The company says its water supply network is under increasing pressure after record-breaking heatwaves and lower than average rainfall, with record levels of demand. It describes redistributing water through what it calls a one-of-a-kind supply grid, moving water from areas of surplus to where it is needed most, and says that in July alone it increased the number of leaks found and fixed by a third. The 50-year gap since the last restrictions in this region is the clearest measure of how unusual the summer has been: the previous occasion was the drought of 1976. Drought status is an Environment Agency designation and a separate instrument from this ban, which is Wessex Water's own Section 76 decision.

UK Lawn Care During Wessex Water Restrictions

Wessex Water's own water saving advice includes letting your lawn go brown, which is also the correct horticultural answer. UK lawns are cool-season grasses that go dormant in drought to protect their crowns and green up within weeks of autumn rain, so a brown lawn in August is doing what it evolved to do. The ban restricts the hosepipe rather than the water: a watering can is unrestricted and so is water from a butt. Stop feeding, raise the mower to 50 to 60 millimetres and leave the clippings.

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