The UK’s hottest summer on record has left water supplies under pressure, with Thames Water confirming that hosepipe restrictions will remain in place across the region.

Despite the recent wey spell, the dry ground has absorbed much of the rainfall with reservoirs remaining depleted, the water company said.

The Met Office has announced that summer 2025 was the warmest on record, with average temperatures 1.51°C above the long-term average.

At the same time, rainfall has been scarce, with less than half the expected amount falling in recent months.

Nevil Muncaster, strategic water resources director at Thames Water, said reservoir levels were far below the norm for this time of year.

He said: “This summer has been ‘the hottest on record’ and in our region alone, we’ve had less than half the rainfall we would expect over the last few months, meaning rivers and groundwater levels in the west of our region are still under significant pressure.

“We’ve welcomed the rain over the past few weeks, which has helped the rivers we use to top up our reservoirs, however most of this rainfall has been soaked up by the excessively dry ground and hasn’t had a notable impact to the groundwater levels which feed the River Thames.

“To restore reservoir levels to normal, we need at least 70 percent of our average rainfall between now and spring.

“Our water resources will take time to recover. Consequently, current hosepipe restrictions will remain in place.”

He said more than 5 million litres of water had been saved each day since the hosepipe ban began.

“We encourage everyone to keep using water wisely to protect our local rivers, reservoirs, and wildlife,” added Mr Muncaster.