A hosepipe ban is now in force across Putney, Roehampton and the rest of Thames Water’s supply area, after weeks of high demand the company says is equivalent to adding every home in Manchester to its network.
The ban took effect from midnight last night and covers all 10.1 million Thames Water customers across London, the Thames Valley and the Home Counties, including every SW15 postcode. Hosepipes, sprinklers and pressure washers can no longer be used for watering the garden, washing the car, filling a paddling pool or topping up a hot tub.
Watering cans, buckets and water butts are all still fine. So is grey water from the sink or bath.
Why now
Thames Water says demand has run 7% above normal in London and 10% above normal in the Thames Valley and Home Counties, after the driest spring in years and three heatwaves. Spring rainfall came in at 40% of the usual average. Between 3 and 10 July, the company produced more than 20 billion litres of drinking water in a single week, more than the whole of the UK usually gets through in a day.
Nine days have hit 34°C or higher across the UK so far this year, beating the previous record years of 1976 and 2020. Eight Environment Agency areas are officially in prolonged dry weather.
Thames Water’s director of strategic water resources, Nevil Muncaster, said: “We would not be taking this step unless it was necessary to protect water supplies for everyone and the environment.”
What Thames Water says it’s doing
The company points to its own repair work as part of the case for the ban: more than 750 leaks fixed a week, over 100km of new mains laid since April 2025, and 1.3 million smart meters installed. It calls the programme its biggest upgrade in 150 years.
For what it’s worth, nobody has ever actually been fined for breaking a hosepipe ban. Breaching one is a criminal offence under the Water Industry Act 1991, carrying a fine of up to £1,000. But Thames Water and six other major water companies have all confirmed they have never issued one, and the position hasn’t changed this year. Thames Water has said in the past that it prefers “a calm and sensible discussion” with anyone who breaks the rules.
Thames Water is not the only company doing this. Several other water firms, including South East Water, Southern Water and Anglian Water, have imposed their own bans this summer.
When it might end
There’s no end date. Muncaster said Thames Water’s teams “will keep the situation under close review and lift restrictions as soon as it is safe to do so.” The last ban of this scale, covering the whole of London and the Thames Valley, ran from August to November 2022, lifted after heavy autumn rain.
Another chance for good to come out of bad. Wandsworth in common with other local governments and the UK government is moving much too slowly to adapt to climate change and the cycle of flood and drought. But we as individuals can make a difference even though our leaders are reluctant to act. If you don’t know about plants or what to do (and I certainly didn’t) there is loads of information online – eg Woodland Trust, RHS, Garden Organic and others. Putney News has profiled some local gardens and projects to get us all planting – time for another article?? If you have a lawn – shift to more biodiverse and drought resistant plantings and no more sprinklers, shift away from hard pavings to porous surfaces – even if you park your car out front, plant everywhere – windowsills, pots, balconies, gardens, community gardens. Share with your neighbours to create a green corridor for bees and butterflies. And last but not least email your local councillors and ask them to put in place long overdue measures to regenerate nature in Wandsworth. Other cities with fewer resources than ours have done this – we can too.