After two very dry winters, in April seven water firms across the south of England put the bans in place, but they were followed by record-busting levels of rainfall in May.

Thames Water, which serves around 8.8m people in the London and Thames Valley region, are the first company to make such announcements, since hosepipe bans were initially meant to last through to next spring.

However, the Environment Agency has now said that the risk of real drought is greatly diminished, and that further water restrictions were highly unlikely. Despite this, some areas need around 140% of the average rainfall for this time of year to return to normal levels, showing just how severe the situation had become.

Richard Aylard of Thames Water said that the company would not keep hosepipe bans in place for longer than they had to.

He added, "But unless the topsy-turvy British weather delivers an unexpectedly Saharan twist, we no longer expect to need to keep the ban in place right through to the autumn."

Hosepipe bans remain in place for customers of Anglian Water, South East Water, parts of Southern Water, Sutton and East Surrey Water, Thames Water, Veolia Central and Veolia South East.