Most of England Is in Drought. We Scored Britain's Water Companies on Climate.

It's October. It's cold, and in Yorkshire it's rained most of the week. So it sounds odd to say most of England is in drought. But it is, officially. Eleven parts of England are in drought, and Yorkshire joined the list on 9 October.

Drought isn't about this week's weather. It's about how much water is stored up. Reservoirs across England are 54% full, which is 21% below normal for the time of year, and eight are classed as exceptionally low. At the end of September, Ardingly in West Sussex was down to 23% and Wimbleball in Somerset to 21%.

After six dry months, the ground is so dry that autumn rain mostly soaks in before it reaches rivers and reservoirs. In the week to 8 October, rain lifted river flows at just over half the Environment Agency's monitoring sites, but not one was above normal. The Agency says England needs 120% of its usual rainfall over the next seven months to be out of drought by spring. That's a fifth more rain than normal, every month, until April.

Ten water companies still have hosepipe bans in force. They feel like a summer story, and nobody's filling a paddling pool this week. But the bans stay until the reservoirs recover, and in a year like this that can take all winter.

We had just finished scoring Britain's big water and sewerage companies, the eleven that supply most of Great Britain's water and take its sewage away. Same ten questions we ask every company on SINK. Public evidence only. Here's how they did.

UK water companies ranked on climate

The top score is 50 out of 100. Four companies reach Making progress, our band from 46 to 59. The other seven are Below expectations. None reaches Leading practice, which starts at 60.

Scores change as companies publish new evidence. The live water company ranking always shows the current numbers.

A score of 50 doesn't mean half good. Part of every score is what the industry physically does, and moving and cleaning water is a heavy business, so a water company starts lower than, say, a software firm. The rest is how the company performs: whether its emissions are falling, whether its targets are real, and what independent evidence says. That's the part where Severn Trent on 50 and Thames on 36 differ.

*Hosepipe bans as listed in the Environment Agency's drought report for 2 to 8 October 2026. South West Water's ban covers its whole area except Bournemouth, and includes Bristol Water. Northumbrian Water's ban is in its Essex & Suffolk Water area. Southern Water's covers Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Scotland and Wales aren't covered by that report.

A hosepipe ban tells you about the rain first

It's tempting to read the ban column as a league table of who's let us down. It mostly isn't. The bans sit where the least rain has fallen. So far this October, the east and south-east of England have had 6% of their usual rainfall.

South West Water has a ban and scores 49, second in the table. Yorkshire Water has no ban and scores 39. The weather decides who runs short this year. What a company does about its own footprint, year after year, is what we score.

Where a water company's carbon comes from

Water is heavy. Pumping it, cleaning it and treating sewage takes a lot of electricity. Sewage treatment also gives off nitrous oxide and methane directly, both far stronger greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide. Then there's the sludge, and the fact that the business discharges straight into rivers and the sea.

Most of a water company's footprint is its own operations, not its suppliers. So for water companies, we size the footprint on what they emit themselves.

Thames Water has the biggest footprint and the lowest score. In the year to March 2026 it reported 769,100 tonnes of emissions from its own operations (Scope 1 and 2), nearly eight times South West Water's 98,780 tonnes. That's about three times Thames's figure the year before, mostly because the industry changed how it counts nitrous oxide from sewage treatment. It scores 36.

We changed two scores, and here's why

Until this week, United Utilities and Severn Trent were scored as energy suppliers, the category we use for electricity and gas companies. That was wrong. A water company is a different physical business, so we gave water companies their own category, and we now size their footprint on their own emissions.

United Utilities moves from 56 to 47. Severn Trent moves from 40 to 50. Both changes are logged on their company pages with the reason. Our FTSE 100 post from 11 October had United Utilities eighth on 56. We've added a note there too.

We'd rather fix a score in public than defend a wrong one. The rules are on our methodology page, and every change is dated.

What about the sewage?

It counts, but it isn't the whole score. Pollution shows up in our questions on water, nature and controversies, and fines and enforcement are marked down. But SINK is built mainly around climate. A company can do badly on sewage and still score in the middle.

If rivers matter most to you, open your water company's page. The question-by-question marks tell you more than the headline number, and every mark links to its sources.

And if you work at one of these companies and think we've missed something, tell us. Any score can be challenged for free with evidence. If we got it wrong, we change it and log why, the same as we did this week.

Questions people ask

Is England in drought in October 2026?
Yes. As of 9 October 2026, eleven Environment Agency areas in England are in drought, including Yorkshire from 9 October. Reservoirs across England are 54% full, 21% below normal for the time of year. Recent autumn rain has mostly soaked into dry ground, and the Environment Agency says England needs 120% of its usual rainfall over the next seven months to be out of drought by spring.

Which water companies have hosepipe bans?
As of the Environment Agency report for 2 to 8 October 2026: Affinity Water (Central and East), Anglian Water (except Hartlepool), Bristol Water, Cambridge Water, Essex & Suffolk Water, Southern Water (Hampshire and the Isle of Wight), South East Water, South West Water (except Bournemouth), Thames Water and Wessex Water.

Which UK water company scores best on climate?
On SINK's scores, Severn Trent is first on 50 out of 100, followed by South West Water (49), United Utilities (47) and Scottish Water (46). No water company reaches SINK's Leading practice band, which starts at 60.

Which UK water company scores worst on climate?
Thames Water is lowest on 36 out of 100. It also reports the largest emissions from its own operations of the eleven. Southern Water and Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water are next on 37.

Does a hosepipe ban mean a water company is badly run?
Not on its own. Bans are in force where the least rain has fallen, mostly the east and south of England, so a ban tells you about the weather in that region first. SINK's scores look at each company's emissions, targets, evidence and record, using the same ten questions as every company.

All eleven scored on SINK methodology v2.5.12, verified October 2026. Drought figures from the Environment Agency's drought report for 2 to 8 October 2026 and its 2 October 2026 reservoir update. Nobody can pay to change a score.