Hosepipe bans and drought notices STILL enforced amid wettest week since February

Approximately 30 million people across England continue to face limits on their water usage.

Despite the downpours, water storage has kept falling at the majority of public supply reservoirs, according to the National Drought Group.

Average reservoir levels nationally have dropped to just 58 per cent, well below normal, with eleven reservoirs now sitting at less than half capacity. Nine of those are classified as having exceptionally low storage.

The Environment Agency has stressed that considerable further rainfall is required before conditions can return to normal.

The 10 regions under formal drought designation are East Anglia, Thames, Hertfordshire and North London, Kent and South London, Solent and South Downs, Wessex, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, the West Midlands, East Midlands, and Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire.

A further four areas, the Northeast, Yorkshire, Cumbria and Lancashire, and Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire, sit one step below at prolonged dry weather status.

Heavy rain has hit much of the UK

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Environment Agency figures reveal that rainfall during August reached 78 per cent of the long-term national average, though the south-east received just 54 per cent.

Between August 28 and September 3, weekly rain totals ranged from 26mm in south-east England to 48mm across central parts of the country.

Groundwater levels have continued their seasonal decline despite the recent wet spell.

Some pressure on the farming sector has eased where rain has fallen, the agency noted, though the relief has been unevenly distributed.

Between August 28 and September 3, weekly rain totals ranged from 26mm in south-east England to 48mm across central parts of the country

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Prime Minister Andy Burnham used his maiden Commons address to confront the crisis in England's water infrastructure, describing the industry as "a leaking monument" to the privatisation agenda of the 1980s.

Provisional Met Office data confirms this summer was the hottest the UK has experienced since records began in 1884.

Mr Burnham told MPs: "Too many areas have seen water supplies disrupted this summer due to a lack of reservoir capacity."

He added: "Our tourism industry is damaged by too many sewage spills."

The Environment Agency had issued pollution risk warnings against bathing at several coastal locations, including Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk, Pelham Beach in Hastings, Weston-super-Mare and Blackpool.

The Prime Minister committed to exploring "all possible solutions for the water industry" and promised that his forthcoming 10-year plan for Britain would outline measures for "stronger public control" over essential services including water.

Mr Burnham was blunt about the financial consequences for ordinary households, arguing that money had been extracted from the sector through executive pay and shareholder dividends while infrastructure was left to deteriorate.

"When it comes to the point now when we're needing to put those infrastructure problems right, it's the billpayers who are being asked to pay 20 per cent-plus on their bills, not those who siphoned the money out in the first place," he said.

Pelham Beach in Hastings has warned against bathing

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He described it as "an industry where the shareholders never lose and the billpayers never win."

The Independent Water Commission, led by former Bank of England deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe, published 88 reform recommendations last year, including the creation of a single integrated regulator merging Ofwat, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Environment Agency and Natural England.

Under Sir Keir Starmer's government, Defra had estimated full nationalisation of the water sector would cost roughly £100billion.