Brits face £1,000 fine for washing their cars with a hose today

Brits in Yorkshire face a £1,000 fine after a hosepipe ban was introduced today. Households in the county are the first to be hit with the ban after months of hot, dry weather across England.

Yorkshire Water's restrictions mean hosepipes can't be used, including for watering the garden, cleaning cars and filling paddling pools. The company said the ban is part of efforts to protect supplies in the face of yet more dry weather forecast for the coming weeks.

Customers who ignore the ban could face fines of up to £1,000. However, the utility has said it hopes it won't come to that. It hopes households will do their bit to help conserve water by sticking to the ban.

Businesses can use a hosepipe if there's a commercial reason to justify it. Households are being urged to use watering cans or buckets rather than reaching for hosepipes. Gardeners have been advised of the best time of day to water their gardens.

The restrictions will be in place until groundwater levels return to where they need to be. Yorkshire Water has said it isn't certain how long this could take, as it all depends on rainfall.

Dave Kaye, Director of Yorkshire Water, said: "Introducing these restrictions is not a decision we have taken lightly and we've been doing everything we can to avoid having to put them in place."

He explained that the ban means the company can apply for drought permits from the Environment Agency which would allow it to take more water from rivers. It emerged this week some rivers are already under pressure from agricultural run-off, forever chemicals and sewage.

Drought was officially confirmed in Yorkshire and northwest England in May. The county saw only 15cm of rain between February and June, less than half the amount expected.

Yorkshire Water's ban could be followed by others, with Thames Water warning a hosepipe ban could be imposed on its 16 million customers.

The Environment Agency warned in June that England's public water supply could be short by five billion litres a day by 2055 without urgent action to futureproof resources.

Climate change, population growth and environmental pressures are impacting supplies with the predicted shortfall equivalent to a third of our current daily use - or the volume of 4.5 Wembley Stadiums.

A further one billion litres a day will also be needed to generate energy, grow food and power emerging technologies.

The Environment Agency expects 60% of the deficit to be addressed by water companies managing demand and dramatically reducing leaks. The remaining 40% would come from boosting supply, including the building of new reservoirs and water transfer schemes.