England's hosepipe bans spare private schools, golf clubs
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- St Paul's School in Barnes is watering its playing fields to a lush green via a dedicated standpipe, despite a Thames Water hosepipe ban covering 40% of England's population; the school's fees run up to £57,000 a year
- Royal St George's Golf Club — which hosts The Open Championship and charges visitors ~£400/day — stays bright green on the Kent coast while South East Water customers face a ban and local parks have gone brown
- Dulwich College (fees up to £67,000/year, Nigel Farage among its alumni) continues running powerful sprinklers on sports pitches after breaking for summer, while nearby Brockwell Park community gardens cannot be properly watered
- Helena Dollimore, Labour MP for Hastings and Rye, called the exemptions symbolic of "everything wrong with our water system," blaming "consecutive Conservative governments selling off our most precious resource"
- Cat Hobbs, founder of campaign group We Own It, called the inequality "shocking" and said public ownership is crucial to "cut leaks and stop unfair exemptions like this"
- Half of England is now officially in drought, with no rain in parts for over a month and 30°C-plus temperatures hit on 24 separate days this summer — despite the wettest start to the year on record in some areas
- Prof Hannah Cloke of the University of Reading said it "seems crazy to sprinkle drinking water over sports pitches that don't need it, when others are facing severe shortages"
Why it matters: With seven water companies restricting use and half of England officially in drought, the visible contrast between parched public parks and irrigated private-school and golf-club grounds has become a flashpoint in the long-running fight over England's privatized water system. Labour MPs and campaign groups are using these exemptions — schools allowed to water for "health and safety," even out of term — as Exhibit A for public ownership and an end to decades of underinvestment in pipes and infrastructure.
