Overview
- South East Water told customers the ban takes effect immediately and will be legally enforced from Friday 3 July to prevent local low pressure or outages.
- The Met Office issued rare red heat warnings and recorded a provisional high of 36.1C at Gosport, driving sustained spikes in showers, paddling pools and garden watering that raised demand sharply.
- Firms have boosted treated supply — South East Water said it is adding about 100 million litres a day and Anglian put 1,600 million litres into supply on a peak day — but companies say treatment and refill rates cannot keep up with short-term draws from storage.
- The Temporary Use Ban can be enforced under the Water Industry Act with fines up to £1,000 and limited exemptions for vulnerable customers and essential businesses.
- The ban has renewed public anger over repeated local failures and comes as Ofwat pursues a proposed £22 million penalty for past South East Water outages, and other providers are urging conservation and may introduce restrictions if demand stays high.