Fixing Britain’s leaky pipes

What’s happened?

ollowing five months of below-average rainfall and the hottest summer for almost 50 years, a drought was officially declared across most of southern and eastern England last week, with Yorkshire now added to the list, too – and the West Midlands set to follow. From next Wednesday a hosepipe ban will be imposed on 15 million customers in London and parts of southern England, as Thames Water became the sixth company to announce restrictions in response to the drought. It takes the number of people subject to “temporary use”