Yorkshire Water imposed a hosepipe ban almost a month ago on residents.

However, with heavy rainfall due to Storm Floris alongside the ban remaining in place, many people are asking whether the hosepipe ban will continue?

On July 11, Yorkshire Water imposed a hosepipe ban which “could last until the Winter months,” they said.

Reservoir and river water levels have been exceptionally low which meant that water couldn’t be abstracted from the rivers into the reservoirs.

Swinsty Reservoir, in the beautiful Washburn Valley near Otley and Harrogate, has seen a big drop in water levels after weeks of dry weather. Picture: James Hardisty. Date: 30th April 2025.

placeholder image — Swinsty Reservoir, in the beautiful Washburn Valley near Otley and Harrogate, has seen a big drop in water levels after weeks of dry weather. Picture: James Hardisty. Date: 30th April 2025.

This comes following the driest Spring in over 50 years which led to the Environment Agency declaring a drought in the UK in June.

The Met Office said that rainfall between March to May 2025 was the sixth lowest since 1836.

Yorkshire Water said the hosepipe ban was needed with the county’s reservoirs sitting at 56 per cent capacity. This is well below the normal level of 82 per cent at this time of year.

While Storm Floris brought intermittent rainfall, a welcomed relief for gardens, the rain had little impact on the region’s reservoirs, according to Dave Kaye, director of water at Yorkshire Water.

Swinsty Reservoir, in the beautiful Washburn Valley near Otley and Harrogate, has seen a big drop in water levels after weeks of dry weather. The UK saw its warmest day of the year on Tuesday with a peak of 24.9C (76.8F) recorded - and forecasters predicting that later this week could see the hottest start to May on record.

He said that reservoir levels continued to fall by 2.7% over the last seven days.

Mr Kaye added: “Total stocks dropped to 44.7%, well below the average of 75.9% for this time of year, as we continue to distribute over 1.2 billion litres of water every day.”

Yorkshire Water thanked customers for adhering to the ban which has led to a ten percent reduction in domestic water consumption.

Mr Kaye said: “Customers are the real powerhouse here and we’d like to thank those who put away their hosepipes to help save water where they can in what has been an extremely dry 2025.”

In the Water boss’ latest social media video from a noticeably dry looking Ryburn Reservoir where the dam wall is largely visible, Mr Kaye explains why despite rainfall reservoir levels continue to decline.

He said: “We do normally abstract from rivers but because the rainfall hasn’t come the river levels are low so we have to continue to abstract from reservoirs.”

Mr Kaye added that when there is rainfall, the land is so dry that it tends to seep into the ground to feed the plants and trees first.

The hosepipe ban remains in place with the hope that the ban combined with autumn weather will help to replenish reservoir levels.

Yorkshire Water’s last hosepipe ban in August 2022 lasted three months.

Earlier this week Yorkshire Water came under fire, as MPs accused the company of “taking us for fools” after it emerged CEO Nicola Shaw was handed an extra £1.3m in undisclosed payments over the last two years from the firm’s off-shore parent company.

Yorkshire Water is one of six companies that had been banned from paying bosses bonuses after they were given the go ahead to raise customers’ average household bills 41% to £607 by 2030.