Drought has been declared in half of England after months of unusually dry conditions, as officials warn that sustained low rainfall is straining water supplies, rivers and the wider environment.The Environment Agency announced that seven areas are now officially in drought: East Anglia, Hertfordshire and North London, Thames Valley, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Devon and Cornwall, the West Midlands, and Wessex, which covers Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and south Gloucestershire.The declaration follows a series of hosepipe bans affecting more than 23 million people, including customers served by Thames Water and South East Water.Helen Wakeham, the Environment Agency’s director of water and chair of the National Drought Group, said the country was using water faster than it could be naturally replenished due to prolonged hot, dry conditions.“A second consecutive summer drought is an exceptionally serious situation and one that will have long-lasting impacts on our environment, wildlife, and the economy,” she said.According to the Environment Agency, England received only seven per cent of its average rainfall in July, with parts of southern England recording just one per cent of normal rainfall.The agency said it had intensified its drought response by increasing environmental monitoring and tightening controls on the amount of water that can be taken from rivers and groundwater sources.The latest declaration marks England’s third drought in five years, following previous droughts in 2022 and 2025.Several other regions, including Kent and East Sussex, Cumbria and Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire, the East Midlands, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, and the rest of Solent and the South Downs, remain in prolonged dry weather status.At present, Yorkshire and the North East are the only parts of England that remain under normal conditions, although officials said the situation continues to be monitored closely.
