Overview

• The ban covers customers in OX, GL, SN, RG4, RG8 and RG9 postcodes, prohibiting non-essential hosepipe activities such as cleaning cars, watering gardens and filling pools.
• Fines of up to £1,000 can be issued to those who breach the Temporary Usage Ban rules.
• Thames Water cited England’s driest spring in over a century and the warmest June on record, noting low supplies at Farmoor Reservoir and local rivers as the rationale for action.
• The company is accelerating leak repairs and has pledged to replace 500 km of ageing mains over the next five years.
• The GMB union criticised losses of 200 billion litres of water to leaks last year and urged faster infrastructure investment.