Oct 16, 2026 · 28 min · 10 segments
Sean Curran reports as MPs discuss the first-ever severe drought recorded in the UK. Also - why heritage pubs needed to be protected. And a father argues that health professionals need to look at…
Sean CurranHostPhilip PirriGuest
Paula SussexGuestAmber BattyGuest
The Water Minister, Emma Hardy, told MPs that over 80% of England was now in drought, affecting around 50 million people.
She said water companies had been told to carry out daily monitoring of reservoir and river levels in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, and Sussex.
Severe drought is the highest classification in the Environment Agency's drought framework.
While customer supplies are not interrupted, declaring a severe drought allows us to ensure proactive steps are taken to safeguard water before any disruption occurs.
Emma Hardy said the measures were needed following record-breaking heat and too little rain.
While water companies remain responsible for maintaining public water supplies and for taking action under their drought and emergency plans, we can all help by thinking about ways to use water wisely over the coming weeks.
And she said the government planned to build nine new reservoirs across England by 2050 to prevent the current situation becoming the norm.
But the Conservative Shadow Environment Minister, Robbie Moore, complained that the government had been too slow to react.
11 areas are now in drought, with Yorkshire the latest to be declared.
10 water companies have hose pipe bans in force.
Drought related environmental incidents have already overtaken the totals of 2022 and '25.
This is the third drought in five years.
It should not have caught the government off guard, but here we are, Madam Deputy Speaker, on a sitting Friday, listening to the Water Minister roll out an emergency statement effectively saying she's been busy having meetings.
The minister said she couldn't make it rain, but insisted Labour had been planning for drought ever since it came into government, and she accused the Conservatives of failing to prepare during their 14 years in office.
For the Liberal Democrats, Al Pinkerton called on ministers and the water companies to act now and at speed.
Families, schools, and businesses deserve to know that their taps will keep running, and this will not become the new normal.
And the best way to save water is by not wasting the water we've got.
So water companies must act to cut leakage, follow drought plans, and invest in resilient infrastructure.
A Conservative, Mims Davies, feared her constituents in East Grinstead and Uckfield, which covers parts of East and West Sussex, would be forced to rely on standpipes in the street for their daily water supplies.
Low rainfall, record-breaking temperatures, uh, this summer, and the El Nino impact.
Uh, it has now been announced that we are likely to get standpipes, meaning constituents, um, with water dependent businesses are already very worried and at their wits end.
Of course, we're preparing for every scenario w- you know, as a responsible government, but there is no immediate plans for standpipes.
Our immediate sort of request from all members of Parliament actually is please, if you can go and share the Let's Save Water campaign, which is a national campaign that's been running all summer.
The Water Minister, Emma Hardy, told MPs that over 80% of England was now in drought, affecting around 50 million people.
She said water companies had been told to carry out daily monitoring of reservoir and river levels in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, and Sussex.
Severe drought is the highest classification in the Environment Agency's drought framework.
While customer supplies are not interrupted, declaring a severe drought allows us to ensure proactive steps are taken to safeguard water before any disruption occurs.
Emma Hardy said the measures were needed following record-breaking heat and too little rain.
While water companies remain responsible for maintaining public water supplies and for taking action under their drought and emergency plans, we can all help by thinking about ways to use water wisely over the coming weeks.
And she said the government planned to build nine new reservoirs across England by 2050 to prevent the current situation becoming the norm.
But the Conservative Shadow Environment Minister, Robbie Moore, complained that the government had been too slow to react.
11 areas are now in drought, with Yorkshire the latest to be declared.
10 water companies have hose pipe bans in force.
Drought related environmental incidents have already overtaken the totals of 2022 and '25.
This is the third drought in five years.
It should not have caught the government off guard, but here we are, Madam Deputy Speaker, on a sitting Friday, listening to the Water Minister roll out an emergency statement effectively saying she's been busy having meetings.
The minister said she couldn't make it rain, but insisted Labour had been planning for drought ever since it came into government, and she accused the Conservatives of failing to prepare during their 14 years in office.
For the Liberal Democrats, Al Pinkerton called on ministers and the water companies to act now and at speed.
Families, schools, and businesses deserve to know that their taps will keep running, and this will not become the new normal.
And the best way to save water is by not wasting the water we've got.
So water companies must act to cut leakage, follow drought plans, and invest in resilient infrastructure.
A Conservative, Mims Davies, feared her constituents in East Grinstead and Uckfield, which covers parts of East and West Sussex, would be forced to rely on standpipes in the street for their daily water supplies.
Low rainfall, record-breaking temperatures, uh, this summer, and the El Nino impact.
Uh, it has now been announced that we are likely to get standpipes, meaning constituents, um, with water dependent businesses are already very worried and at their wits end.
Of course, we're preparing for every scenario w- you know, as a responsible government, but there is no immediate plans for standpipes.
Our immediate sort of request from all members of Parliament actually is please, if you can go and share the Let's Save Water campaign, which is a national campaign that's been running all summer.
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