Reform UK has promised to end hosepipe bans permanently and embark on a major expansion of Britain’s reservoir network, as a prolonged drought puts more than 26mn people under water-use restrictions.
Nigel Farage’s party has pledged to scrap water-reduction targets introduced under the Conservatives and retained by Labour, arguing that Britain’s water crisis is fundamentally a failure of infrastructure rather than household consumption.
Nine water companies have now imposed Temporary Use Bans after weeks of exceptionally dry weather, with drought conditions covering more than 71 per cent of England.
Under the restrictions, households can be fined up to £1,000 for using a hosepipe to water gardens, wash cars, clean windows or fill paddling pools.
The pressure on supplies has intensified rapidly. England received just 4mm of rain during August, equivalent to 6 per cent of the long-term average, according to the Environment Agency. That followed the driest July on record, when only 7mm of rain was recorded.
Reservoir storage has fallen to 66 per cent, down from 69 per cent a week earlier and almost 14 percentage points below the long-term average. Storage was as high as 85 per cent at the end of June.
Five reservoirs have been classified as having “exceptionally low” levels, including Clatworthy in Somerset, Wimbleball in Somerset, Hanningfield in Essex, Clywedog in Powys and the Dove group in Derbyshire.
Reform says the answer is to accelerate construction of new infrastructure. The party has pledged to cut planning and regulatory barriers to new reservoirs and invest in additional capacity to prevent future shortages.
England has not built a large reservoir since 1992, despite repeated warnings that population growth and changing weather patterns could leave the country increasingly exposed to water shortages.
The Environment Agency warned last year that England could face a public water supply deficit of 5bn litres a day by 2055 without urgent intervention.
The political argument comes as Prime Minister Andy Burnham faces a broader summer emergency. He chaired a Cobra meeting on Wednesday to coordinate the response to extreme heat before deploying additional resources to tackle wildfires.
Mr Burnham described Britain as a “tinderbox”, warning that dozens of fires remained active as the country entered another dry weekend.
“We’ve got 37 fires smouldering around the country,” he said. “This is not over by any means.”
For Reform, the drought provides a potent political case: rather than asking households to use less water, it argues that governments should build enough infrastructure to ensure Britain has more of it.
The question for ministers is whether that approach can be delivered before the next drought exposes the same shortage again.
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