Yorkshire Water has announced a temporary hosepipe ban for the region as the county continues to be in a drought after one of its driest springs on record.
The company said the hosepipe restrictions come into effect on Friday (July 11) and will be in place until the region has seen “significant rainfall to bring reservoirs and groundwater stocks back to where they need to be”.
“This may last into the winter months, but we will lift the usage restrictions as soon as we are able,” said Yorkshire Water’s director of water, Dave Kaye.
Mr Kaye said people will “need to stop using their hosepipes to water their gardens, wash their cars or for any other activities” from Friday.
People can still wash their car and water their gardens without using a hosepipe if they use tap water from a bucket or watering can, Yorkshire Water said.
Water sourced from other means – such as rainwater or from a private borehole – can also be used while the ban is in place, the company added.
Yorkshire Water said businesses will still be allowed to use a hosepipe “if it is directly related to a commercial purpose”.
“There are restrictions on using a hosepipe if not for those essential commercial needs – so using a hosepipe to clean a path outside a business property, for example, would not be allowed,” a spokesperson for the water company said.
Blue badge holders, those on Yorkshire Water’s priority services register or WaterSure tariff for medical reasons, are also excluded from the restrictions.
Yorkshire Water said there was just 15cm of rainfall in the county between February and June, less than half of what is expected in an average year.
The Environment Agency officially declared a drought in Yorkshire in June and forecasters are predicting a warm summer ahead.
Yorkshire Water said it supplied an additional 4.3 billion litres of water between April and June, compared with a typical year, due to the hot weather driving demand.
This extra volume of water is enough to supply the city of Leeds for five weeks, it added.
The company said Yorkshire’s reservoirs are currently at 55.8 per cent, which is 26.1 per cent lower than they would normally be at this time of year.
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Its spokesperson said Yorkshire Water had been “carefully managing water resources in the region for several months”, including moving water via a region-wide grid system to balance stocks and finding and repairing leaks.
But they said the hosepipe restrictions were needed to reduce further demand and protect reservoir stocks.
'We need to take action now,' says Yorkshire Water boss
Mr Kaye said: “We need to take action now to help conserve water and protect Yorkshire's environment.
“That means from Friday this week, people across Yorkshire will need to stop using their hosepipes to water their gardens, wash their cars or for any other activities.
“Introducing these restrictions is not a decision we have taken lightly, and we’ve been doing everything we can to avoid having to put them in place.
“Our region experienced an extremely dry spring, which resulted in the region entering drought status in June.
“Usually, spring is a time when our groundwater sources and reservoirs continue to be topped-up by changeable weather, but this has not been the case in 2025, with our reservoir stocks falling since the last week of January.
“Of course, we have seen a few periods of changeable weather more recently, which helped slightly with the water resources picture. But these have been followed by constant high temperatures and more dry weather, which causes increased water usage.
“We’re grateful to our customers, who have been saving water where they can this year already. It is really important that we all continue to do so.”
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