Kent TUBs FAQs

We will:

• Publish a notice in London Gazette, Kent Messenger and Kentish Gazette
• Promoted messaging via our social media channels – Facebook and LinkedIn
• Emailed our customers with information and a link to our website who are subject to restrictions
• Emailed or sent a letter to customers who are exempt
• Written to relevant MPs and councillors representing the communities we serve
• Briefed our staff about the ban so they can let customers who contact us know
• Updated our dedicated webpage (opens in a new tab)hosting useful information for customers and other water users

A temporary ban is necessary because:

• The South East is in the midst of the second heatwave of the year, after having experienced just 36 per cent of normal rainfall from March to May.
• Whilst the wetter winter months meant that the company’s untreated (raw) water levels are still in a good position, it is the capacity to treat and pump this water that has prompted this move.
• High temperatures experienced in recent weeks has seen customer demand for treated water reach near record levels.
• With demand breaching the triggers in the company’s approved Drought Plan, the company is taking this action to ensure that all customers remain in supply during this period and throughout the summer.
• In preparation for this, every available water treatment works and source is currently producing treated water at full capacity and we ensured that drinking water storage tanks were filled as much as we could before the heatwave started.
• We’ve increased the number of teams fixing bursts and leaks to save water and are re-routing water around the network to where it’s needed most.
• Recent infrastructure upgrades in West Kent have successfully strengthened the Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge networks against a repeat of winter's interruptions, the impact of this summer heatwave is affecting drinking water storage levels right across Kent, requiring a county wide approach to restrictions.
• Despite producing up to more than an additional 100 million litres of water a day - equivalent to supplying in the region of three towns the size of Maidstone – the demand for drinking water needs to be reduced to ensure that supply interruptions are not experienced across its network throughout the summer.

The temporary use ban applies to all customers across our Kent supply area from Friday 3 July 2025. It is not being implemented in our supply area in Sussex or the West, where we serve customers in Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey, however we continue to monitor the situation closely in those areas. Some exemptions to the temporary use ban do exist, and details of those can be found on our website.(opens in a new tab)

The temporary use ban will apply to all household users that are billed by South East Water and in the South East Water supply area of Kent. This includes customers of Last Mile, Leaf Water and Independent Water Networks (IWNL).

We will continue to monitor the situation and should the status of any of these groups change, we will communicate directly with those customers affected.

At this stage we are granting concessions to businesses that use hosepipes as a core part of the commercial operations, such as car washes and window cleaners. All other businesses will need to comply with these restrictions, and should see the table detailing restrictions for further information.

It is likely that it will continue until we are confident that the demand for water has reduced back to manageable levels. We will keep the position under constant review. This really is just a temporary measure to help us in these very unusual circumstances.

We will publish a notice in newspapers, email and text customers and place a message on our website and let media organisations know. It may be necessary to reinstate the temporary use ban again later in the summer if very high temperatures and no rain are experienced again.

We are seeing the impact of accelerated climate change, with hotter and drier summers which is increasing the demand for drinking water in the south east. In the company’s business plan, enhanced after a successful appeal to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), there is significant investment into enhancing resilience in the county’s water supply network in the short, medium and longer term.

The company’s brand new water treatment works in Maidstone will officially be opened in a few weeks’ time, whilst additional pipes will be installed across the county to help move water around more easily. This will be supported with additional storage to provide a buffer against increases in demand. In the long term, the company is developing a new surface reservoir at Broad Oak near Canterbury. We expect these changes, once implemented, will reduce the risk of temporary use bans in the future.

We have increased our water storage capacities with refurbished storage tanks in Aylesford amongst other engineering schemes we have worked on. More information on our engineering schemes can be found here.(opens in a new tab)

We are seeing a change in the climate and the way that customers use water. Some of the key themes that have influenced this decision include:

Unprecedented Demand: A sustained heatwave following a dry spring (March to May saw just 36% of normal rainfall) has pushed demand to record levels.

Infrastructure at capacity: We are currently producing an additional 100 million litres of water per day—equivalent to supplying three towns the size of Maidstone or Eastbourne. Every available treatment works is operating at maximum capacity.

Storage Depletion: Water is currently being drawn from regional storage tanks faster than it can physically be treated and refilled.

Geographic Scope: While recent infrastructure upgrades in West Kent have successfully strengthened the Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge networks, this heatwave is impacting storage levels county-wide, requiring a blanket approach across Kent.

There are many factors that affect leakage, but the three main drivers are:

1. Natural wear and tear on our network.

There are six million joints which have to withstand high pressure 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Inevitably sometimes these pipes and joints fail unexpectedly, but we work around the clock to repair them as quickly as possible.

1. The seasons.

In typical weather conditions, the colder winter months increase leakage due to pipes shrinking, causing the joints between them to open up. Equally, warmer temperatures can undo this effect to reduce leakage. This is expected to even out during the year but leads to peaks and troughs in leakage levels.

1. Extreme weather events.

These can impact leakage over and above the typical seasonal rise and fall. A freeze followed by a rapid thaw can over-stress pipes, causing them to burst. Similarly, prolonged hot dry periods can shrink the earth that supports pipes, causing them to move and break.

Over the last year we have repaired over 21,000 leaks on our network - compared with 18,200 in the previous years whilst repairing over 6,000 customer-side leaks

We have more staff than ever finding and fixing leaks. In total, we have 400 people working on repairing leaks when they are reported, with a further 101 technicians searching for and finding leaks proactively.

We have invested in new leak detection technology, and invested in systems to improve the visibility of our pipeline network, digitising processes to increase efficiency and reduce the need for manual work. For example we use satellite surveys and drones to pinpoint leaks and specialised noise equipment to confirm the location of a leak between two points.

To make sure we continue to beat and improve our leakage targets we'll be investing millions over the next two years and have ambitious plans to halve the amount of leakage by 2050 to 44 million litres a day.

We have 400 people working on repairing leaks when they are reported, with a further 101 technicians searching for and finding leaks proactively. That’s more people out finding and fixing leaks than ever before.

All of our operational teams contribute to the repair of leaks. Our Customer Services team who record reports of leakage from our customers and the general public, the Technicians who find leaks and investigate leak reports, the work schedulers who ensure we respond asap and the repair gangs who undertake the excavation and fixing of leaks. There is a vast number of people across the company who work, each and every day, on finding and fixing leaks.

Leaks are fixed on a priority basis according to a number of factors including the risk to health and safety and the amount of water running to waste, and where it’s going (gushing into the road or running directly into a drain). This means there may be another leak close by that needs more urgent attention; we endeavour to fix 90% of leaks within 48 hours of them being reported.

There are many different ways of finding leaks. There are those reported to us by our customers, those we find by known and trusted methods such as ‘sounding’ (listening for ‘noise’ on pipes) those we find through the use of technology (correlators, meters) and those we find by monitoring and reviewing information from our systems which inform us of areas where water use is higher than we would expect.

We’re always looking at innovative ideas to identify and repair leaks, and are trialling the use of Smart networks, satellite technology and Hive leak alerts to help us detect leaks quicker.

As a company we plan what water resources are available long into the future, and published our Water Resources Management Plan in 2024, which details the actions we’ll take in the short term, and predicts the trends across the region until 2100. As part of this current plan, we will be building a new reservoir at Broad Oak, Canterbury which will be operational by the late 2030s.

Yes – we are meeting regularly with other companies (through Water Resources South East Group) who are also seeing high demand in their areas.

Yes. Individuals who meet the exemption criteria can apply for an exemption if they are supplied by a bulk supply. The exemption would cover the resident(s) who meet the exemption criteria only. To apply for an exemption, please call us on 0300 000 0001 to speak to our customer service team. You are unable to apply for an exemption online if you are not the account holder of the bulk supply.

See table above. For those customers who cannot make adaptations and meet certain classifications from our Priority Services Register, then you are exempt from the ban and you are allowed to use a hosepipe at your domestic property and in an allotment for which you are the registered tenant. Customers who are frail but do not hold one should contact us so we can review on a case-by-case basis. Although exempt we would ask if you can wait until cooler weather and demand for water reduces for any water use that isn’t really necessary, that would really help.

We will review individual situations on a case-by-case basis. You will need to provide a letter from your Doctor as evidence of needing to use the hosepipe for medical reasons before we can grant any exemptions. If you have this, please contact us to ask for a review.

We will review individual situations on a case-by-case basis. You will need to provide a letter from your Vet as evidence of needing to use the hosepipe for medical reasons before we can grant any exemptions. If you have this, please contact us to ask for a review.

Being on a meter puts you in the valuable position that any water saving you make will mean that you will save money on your bills. We are asking our customers to be conscious of the water that may be wasted on a daily basis, for example, leaving the tap running while cleaning your teeth. The more you save, the more you should notice a difference in the bills you receive.

Yes as a ‘garden’ is defined as an area of grass used for sport or recreation and watering a garden with a hosepipe is restricted. However, there is an exemption that allows you to use a hosepipe to water an area of grass or outdoor artificial surfaces used for sport or recreation (on the active strip/ playing area – not the whole grounds) when undertaken outside of daily peak hours that occur 8am to 10am and 5pm to 9pm.

There is also an exemption if you use drip or trickle irrigation watering systems, fitted with a pressure reducing valve and a timer, that are not handheld, that place water drip by drip directly onto the soil surface or beneath the soil surface, without any surface run off or dispersion of water through the air using a jet or mist; a fixed watering system; or you use watering cans and not hoses.

Commercial buildings are not covered under these restrictions, so a hosepipe can be used for / on / in commercial buildings. However, if you use a hosepipe in private gardens, you would be prohibited. For example, a landscape gardener working on a private garden is not allowed to use a sprinkler or hosepipe if the water has been supplied by South East Water. Many landscape gardeners are able to give customers great advice on water efficient gardening.

There are certain exemptions for businesses like window cleaners where there is unavoidable safety risk and no alternative method, for example cleaning high up windows. Other businesses like car washes can use alternative methods, so should not use a hosepipe.

We continue to ask all businesses to save water where possible, especially in places such as kitchens and bathrooms, and consider alternative water sources.

Yes, the update means the previous exemption for cleaning as a service to customers in the course of a business or to clean public service or goods vehicles is no longer in place.

You can still wash your car(s) by hand using water from a bucket, or with a hosepipe which is connected to a rainwater or grey water source (e.g. bathwater or rainwater collected in a water butt). Although you cannot use a hose connected to a mains supply, we would still encourage you to keep your lights and windows clean for safety reasons.

The update means the previous exemption for cleaning as a service to customers in the course of a business or to clean public service or goods vehicles is no longer in place.

You can still wash your car(s) by hand using water from a bucket, or with a hosepipe which is connected to a rainwater or grey water source (e.g. bathwater or rainwater collected in a water butt). Although you cannot use a hose connected to a mains supply, we would still encourage you to keep your lights and windows clean for safety reasons.

The update means the previous exemption for cleaning as a service to customers in the course of a business or to clean public service or goods vehicles is no longer in place.

You can still wash your car(s) by hand using water from a bucket, or with a hosepipe which is connected to a rainwater or grey water source (e.g. bathwater or rainwater collected in a water butt). Although you cannot use a hose connected to a mains supply, we would still encourage you to keep your lights and windows clean for safety reasons.

Garden centres are exempt from the restrictions for watering plants as they are kept for sale or commercial use. However, we encourage using watering cans where possible and to help set a positive example for customers.

Please note filling ornamental displays within the centres is prohibited unless this is necessary to supply sufficient oxygen to the water in a pond to keep fish healthy.

You can also help promote water efficient gardening methods to your customers and promote the purchase of water butts and water retaining gel granules and other products.

We understand that water is a crucial resource for our agricultural customers, and we are committed to supporting the welfare of commercial livestock and the continuity of farming operations. Commercial livestock farms are exempt from the restrictions.

While this exemption is in place, we encourage all farms to use water as efficiently as possible. We recommend regularly checking for leaks on your site and consider adopting water-saving practices like rainwater harvesting and using more efficient irrigation systems.