Thames Water's hosepipe ban still covers every Reading home, 43 days in. Unlike last year's ban, which stopped at Caversham, this one takes in the whole town.

Thames Water’s hosepipe ban is still on. Today is its 43rd day, and Thames Water confirmed on Tuesday 1 September that the restrictions remain in place (Thames Water).

One thing has changed since last year, and it matters in Reading. The 2025 ban only reached part of the town. This one covers all of it.

Last year it stopped at Caversham

Thames Water’s 2025 Temporary Use Ban applied to customers with OX, GL, SN, RG4, RG8 and RG9 postcodes. In Reading borough that meant Caversham, Caversham Heights and Emmer Green, and nowhere else. It ran from 22 July 2025 until 07:00 on 27 November 2025, 129 days, and was lifted after above-average autumn rainfall (Thames Water, 27 November 2025).

The 2026 notice is drawn much wider. Thames Water’s legal notice, made under sections 76 and 76A to 76C of the Water Industry Act 1991, says the prohibition started at 00:01 BST on Thursday 23 July 2026 and “applies to the whole of Thames Water supply area” (legal notice).

That takes in RG1, RG2, RG4, RG30 and RG31. Reading’s drinking water is treated at Fobney, off Rose Kiln Lane, which Thames Water says can produce enough water for more than 300,000 people a day (Thames Water).

Length of Thames Water hosepipe bans, 2025 and 2026 The 2025 ban ran 129 days, from 22 July to 27 November 2025, and covered OX, GL, SN, RG4, RG8 and RG9 postcodes only. The 2026 ban has run 43 days so far, from 23 July 2026, and covers the whole Thames Water supply area. How long the hosepipe ban has lasted Days from the start of each Thames Water Temporary Use Ban. 2025 22 Jul to 27 Nov 129 days Covered OX, GL, SN, RG4, RG8 and RG9 postcodes only 2026 23 Jul, ongoing 43 days so far Covers the whole Thames Water supply area, including all of Reading Source: Thames Water legal notice and news releases. Counted to 3 September 2026. Graphic by Reading Daily

What you cannot do

The legal notice prohibits eleven uses of mains water:

  • watering a garden with a hosepipe
  • cleaning a private motor vehicle or trailer with a hosepipe
  • watering plants on domestic or other non-commercial premises with a hosepipe
  • cleaning a private leisure boat with a hosepipe
  • filling or maintaining a domestic swimming or paddling pool
  • drawing water with a hosepipe for domestic recreational use
  • filling or maintaining a domestic pond with a hosepipe
  • filling or maintaining an ornamental fountain
  • cleaning the walls or windows of domestic premises with a hosepipe
  • cleaning paths or patios with a hosepipe
  • cleaning other artificial outdoor surfaces with a hosepipe

Two of those, the pool and the fountain, apply to every method of filling, including fixed plumbing. For the other nine, a bucket or a watering can is still allowed.

What you can still do

  • Water with a watering can, or with a bucket and sponge.
  • Use a short piece of hose, no more than 30cm, to fill a watering can.
  • Use rainwater from a water butt, grey water or a private borehole through a hosepipe. The ban only covers mains water.
  • Use a drip or trickle irrigation system, if it has a timer and a pressure-reducing valve, is not hand-held, and puts water onto or under the soil rather than spraying it into the air.

Who is exempt

Thames Water’s published exceptions include:

  • Wastewater-only customers. If Thames Water takes your sewage but another company supplies your tap water, this ban does not apply to you.
  • People with severe mobility problems. You do not need a Blue Badge to qualify. The exemption covers watering a garden or allotment, cleaning a private vehicle, filling a domestic pond, and cleaning walls, windows, paths and patios.
  • Some Priority Services Register customers, including people on dialysis, feeding pumps or oxygen, people with dementia or a cognitive impairment, blind customers and people recovering from hospital treatment. Not every Priority Services customer is covered.
  • Food crops at home or on an allotment, where a watering can is not practical.
  • New planting done by a business, for the first 28 days after the turf is laid or the planting is done.
  • Trees, whips, saplings and hedging planted within the last three years, where hand watering is not practical.
  • Ponds and pools containing fish, pools used for medical or veterinary treatment, and pools being filled once after construction.
  • Commercial cleaning services. A window cleaner, car wash or valeter can still use a hose or jet washer. A taxi driver washing their own cab cannot.

The full list is in the legal notice and the company’s FAQs.

The fine, and what Thames Water says about enforcement

Breaking a temporary use ban is a criminal offence. Section 76(5) of the Water Industry Act 1991 makes it punishable on summary conviction by a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale, currently £1,000 (legislation.gov.uk).

Thames Water has not said it intends to prosecute anyone. Its published position is that it will “get in touch with customers who repeatedly don’t follow the rules”, and it asks people not to report neighbours and not to call 999 about a hosepipe.

Why the ban is still on

Thames Water’s most recent water resources update, published on 18 August, set out the position at the end of July 2026:

  • London reservoir storage was 74%, below where the company would expect it for the time of year.
  • Farmoor Reservoir, near Oxford, was 92% full.
  • Thames catchment rainfall in July was under 1mm, 2% of the long-term average.
  • Rainfall since March had been around 40% of the long-term average.
  • River flows were below average, groundwater was normal to below normal, and soils were drier than average.

Thames Water remains at Drought Event Level 2. It says household demand has fallen by around 3% across London and more than 6% across the Thames Valley and Home Counties since the ban came in (Thames Water, 18 August 2026).

The company is also repairing more than 1,000 leaks a week, around 20% more than normal, and says the dry ground is part of the reason there are more of them.

What it means for you

There is no end date. Thames Water says the ban will be lifted “as soon as conditions allow” and that it needs prolonged, significant rainfall first. Last year that took until late November.

Three practical points for Reading households:

  1. Check who supplies your water, not your sewerage. The two are not always the same company, and the ban only binds Thames Water’s water customers.
  2. A water butt is not covered. Anything you have stored can go through a hosepipe as normal.
  3. If you have severe mobility difficulties, you are already exempt. You do not need to apply or hold a Blue Badge.

Reading Borough Council asked residents on 27 August to check they are flood-ready after the dry summer, because baked ground sheds water rather than absorbing it. We set out the borough’s flood warning areas in Reading Flood Warnings: 5 Areas, Plus 3 on Alert. The summer that caused all of this is covered in Reading’s Hottest Summer Since Records Began in 1908.