England Records Driest July Ever; Half in Drought
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- England received just 7% of its long-term average rainfall in July 2025, making it the driest July since records began almost two centuries ago, with half the country and all of Wales now officially in drought
- National Drought Group chair Helen Wakeham described the drought as 'exceptionally serious' and warned of long-lasting impacts on the environment and economy
- Water companies in England and Wales waste 2.87bn litres of water a day through leaky pipes, equivalent to a fifth of all water pumped through the network, according to Greenpeace UK research
- The Environment Agency projects England's public water supply could be short by 5bn litres a day by 2055 without urgent action; no new reservoir has been built in the UK since 1992
- South East Water warned this week that supplies in its region were 'critically low' and customers may lose supply unless demand drops; about 40% of England's population is currently under a hosepipe ban
- Government data shows every single English water body is polluted with toxic chemicals, and just 14.3% of surface waters achieved good ecological status
- Sussex, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk have all seen housing and business development delayed due to water supply availability and inadequate infrastructure, per the article
Why it matters: Three droughts in five years have exposed decades of underinvestment: no major reservoir since 1992, a fifth of treated water lost to leaks, and every English water body polluted. Without action, housing and business development across multiple regions will stall and households face the prospect of standpipes last seen in the 1976 drought.
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