A York MP has said Yorkshire Water’s hosepipe ban is “a mess of their own making”.
Luke Charters made his comments after the company said it was imposing the restrictions from Friday after a hot and dry spring and summer had left its reservoirs 26% lower than they would normally be at this time of year.
Customers who ignore the hosepipe ban could face fines of up to £1,000, but the utility said “we hope it won’t come to that”.
Mr Charters, the Labour MP for York Outer, told YorkMix: “Yorkshire Water’s failure to invest is shameful – and yet again, it’s the public who are paying for their utter incompetence.
“They can take the easy route of blaming the warm weather, but the reality is that this is a mess of their own making. With climate change, Yorkshire Water should be planning ahead, not paddling aimlessly from one mistake to the next.
“I know from countless leaks in York alone over recent weeks and months, that they’d likely have been able to fill dozens of Olympic Swimming Pools – so I won’t accept this failure.
“The reality is that their infrastructure is leakier than a colander, and it really begs the question: where exactly are our bills are going – besides down the drain?
“This isn’t just poor management, it’s yet another disgrace.”
A spokesperson for Yorkshire Water refuted the MP’s criticism, saying: “We routinely review our water resources management plan, which looks many years ahead, to decide where, when, and how we will improve resilience in our water supply.
“We are currently building two new boreholes, which will be up and running in the next few years, new clean water treatment sites, and investing £406m in 1,000km of new mains pipework to reduce the likelihood of bursts and leaks.
“This includes 125km of new mains in York and North Yorkshire over the next two years.
“We understand customer frustration at the number of leaks – during periods of dry weather, ground movement caused by the soil moisture deficit can cause pipes to move and crack. This is a particular issue in areas with more clay-based soils.
“Our region experienced an extremely dry spring, which resulted in the region entering drought status in June. Usually, spring is a time when our groundwater sources and reservoirs continue to be topped-up by changeable weather, but this has not been the case in 2025, with our reservoir stocks falling since the last week of January.
“Introducing these restrictions is not a decision we have taken lightly, and we have been doing everything we can to avoid them being put in place. We’re grateful to our customers, who have been saving water where they can this year already. It is really important that we all continue to do so.”
While the company will lift the ban “as soon as we are able”, it could last into the winter months, Yorkshire Water’s director of water, Dave Kaye, warned.