Deanne Ferguson, the GMB union’s organiser for Yorkshire, said people in the region are “being punished while profits flow and pollution pours out”.
Yorkshire Water has said the restrictions, which come into effect today (Friday, July 11), are needed to protect supplies in the face of more dry weather forecast in the coming weeks.
But Ms Ferguson said the water restrictions came after Yorkshire Water “lost 95 billion litres of water through leaks last year”. “That’s 260 million litres wasted every single day,” she said. “Meanwhile, they’ve [Yorkshire Water] dumped hundreds of thousands of hours’ worth of sewage into our rivers and coastlines.
“Bills are rocketing, infrastructure is crumbling, and investment is nowhere to be seen.
“For Yorkshire Water to now impose a hosepipe is outrageous.”
Ms Ferguson stressed that “GMB union members and workers of Yorkshire Water are the backbone of the service”, and said: “This is about the mismanagement and underfunding into the infrastructure which service users across Yorkshire are now paying for both in increased bills and hose pipe bans.”
A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “Our teams, many of them members of the GMB union, work hard 24/7 to find and fix leaks and reduce discharges to watercourses in our region, for the benefit of customers, which the majority of our colleagues are, and the environment.
“The hard work of all of our teams means leakage is the lowest it has ever been and discharges to watercourses reduce by 12 per cent in 2024, with further reductions expected this year.
“We embarked on our largest ever investment in April 2025 – delivering £8.3 billion of improvements to benefit customers and the environment.”
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Yorkshire has experienced its driest spring for 132 years and was officially declared in drought in June.
“As a result, our stocks are much lower than they should be at this time of the year and the time has come to take action and introduce hosepipe restrictions to protect water supplies and the environment,” the Yorkshire Water spokesperson said.
Luke Charters, MP for York Outer (Image: Supplied) Luke Charters, MP for York Outer, has also criticised Yorkshire Water for its hosepipe ban, saying it is a “mess of their own making”.
The Labour MP, as The Press reported, said the hosepipe ban’s announcement followed Yorkshire Water’s “failure to invest” in its infrastructure which is “leakier than a colander”.
He said it was “the public who are paying for [Yorkshire Water’s] incompetence”.
A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said it understood “customer frustration” at the number of leaks and is investing £38 million across the region over the next five years to “reduce the likelihood of bursts”.
