Thames Water's hosepipe ban has not been lifted in Reading: 98 days in, still no end date. The Kennet at Calcot is exceptionally low. What you can still do.

Thames Water’s hosepipe ban is still on in Reading, and the company has set no date for lifting it. Today is the ban’s 98th day.

Updated 28 October: we checked Thames Water’s ban page again today. It still says the ban “remains in place”, with no end date, and has not changed since 12 October.

Updated 14 October: Thames Water’s ban page, revised on Monday 12 October, says the ban “remains in place” and that “sustained rainfall is still needed before restrictions can be lifted”. We have added the latest reservoir, river and rainfall figures below.

The company says it will lift the ban “as soon as conditions allow” (Thames Water). It has given no forecast beyond that.

The Environment Agency’s figures explain why. September brought rain, but not enough:

  • The Thames area had 31mm of rain in September, 53% of the long-term average.
  • April to September was the driest six-month summer in the Thames area since records began.
  • The River Kennet at Calcot, on Reading’s western edge, recorded exceptionally low flows in both August and September.
  • Farmoor Reservoir ended September at 69.0% full, and the Lower Thames reservoirs at 53.1%.

All four figures come from the Environment Agency’s Thames area water situation report for September 2026, published on 14 October.

Thames Water’s ban covers the whole of the town. Last year’s did not.

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 98 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 98 days so far Covers the whole Thames Water supply area, including all of Reading Source: Thames Water legal notice and news releases. Counted to 28 October 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 last full update, on 23 September, said the September rain was welcome but “not enough to end water restrictions” (Thames Water, 23 September 2026).

Julie Morton, the company’s Head of Water Resources, said: “We will need significant and prolonged rainfall over the coming weeks to be able to consider lifting the restrictions that remain in place.”

The company said rainfall between March and August was less than half the normal amount. It said groundwater and soil moisture were “significantly below average”.

The Environment Agency’s September report puts numbers on that:

  • Soils are still dry. Soil moisture deficits were roughly double the September average across every part of the Thames area. The agency says soils have to be wet through again before significant groundwater recharge can start.
  • Rivers are low. Eight of the twelve indicator sites recorded notably or exceptionally low flows. The Kennet at Calcot was one of four rated exceptionally low.
  • The Thames is being topped up. The West Berkshire Groundwater Scheme was switched on at the end of August and ran throughout September, to supplement flows in the River Thames.
  • Groundwater is falling. Levels declined at every indicator site in September, as they normally do at this time of year.

The Environment Agency still has the Thames area in drought status, as it has since July.

Bar chart of reservoir storage. Farmoor Reservoir fell from 75.6% full at the end of August 2026 to 69.0% at the end of September. The Lower Thames reservoirs fell from 59.4% to 53.1% over the same month.
Farmoor and the Lower Thames reservoirs both fell in September. Chart by Reading Daily.
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The agency’s weekly drought report for 2 to 8 October says Thames Water remains at Drought Level 2 in all its water resource zones, and that its company-wide ban remains in force (Environment Agency). The agency granted Thames Water a drought permit for Farmoor on 29 September.

October has started dry too. England had 10% of its October long-term average rainfall in the first week of the month, according to the same report.

Thames Water says it is fixing more than 1,000 leaks a week, around 20% more than normal, with 18% more people on leak work than last year. It says household demand has fallen by up to 3% in London and up to 6% across the Thames Valley and Home Counties since the ban began.

What it means for you

There is no end date. Thames Water needs weeks of sustained rain before it will consider lifting the ban. Last year’s ban, which in Reading only covered Caversham, Caversham Heights and Emmer Green, was lifted on 27 November after a wet autumn. This year the Thames area has just had its driest April to September on record.

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.