Domestic water usage down 10% since hosepipe ban introduced

Thursday, 31 July 2025 11:32

The Hosepipe Ban has been successful, according to Yorkshire Water.

Domestic water usage has dropped by 10% since the introduction of the hosepipe ban, Yorkshire Water has revealed.

Hosepipe restrictions came into effect on 11th July.

In warm weather 70-80 million litres per day have been saved, while days with cooler temperatures and rainfall over the last three weeks led to savings of approximately 35 million litres.

Despite the reduced water usage, and increased number of repairs to leaks across the region, reservoir stocks dropped 1.7% over the last seven days.

Total stocks dropped to 47.4%, well below the average of 76.5% for this time of year.

Dave Kaye, director of water at Yorkshire Water, said:

“A 10% reduction in domestic water use since restrictions were implemented is fantastic and testament to our customers who understand the need to put the hosepipes away and to save water where they can after an extremely dry 2025 so far.

“We have seen temperatures drop and patches of rainfall across the region in recent weeks, which both help to bring down demand for water, but reservoir levels are still falling as we continue to distribute over 1.2 billion litres of water every day.

"We really appreciate the efforts of residential and business customers to do what they can to reduce water usage.

“Our teams are working around the clock to find and fix leaks, repairing more than 800 every week to keep water in supply.

“The hosepipe restrictions remain in place, and we recently enacted the next stage of our drought plan – the application for drought permits and orders – to manage the water resources picture in the near and longer-term.

"We will keep customers updated on water resources over the coming weeks and months and will remove the hosepipe restrictions as soon as we can.”

The 135,000 smart meters fitted across Yorkshire have also helped to identify more than 2,000 properties with leaky pipework.

So far, 50% of customers informed of leaks on their property have taken steps to repair them, saving 1.5 million litres per day.