Over 50 million people now in drought as minister Emma Hardy tells MPs 'I can't make it rain'

Devon County Council leader Julian Brazil has accused South West Water of decades of "neglect", arguing that the company's failure to construct sufficient reservoirs "put us here" — while Wimbleball Reservoir on Exmoor stands at just 14.9% capacity against an expected 75%. Hardy told an emergency Commons session that drought now covers more than 80% of England, affecting around 50 million people, after severe drought declarations across Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex and West Sussex. The South East and South West have endured their driest April to September in over a century.

Shadow minister Robbie Moore accused Labour of being "slow to react", calling it the third drought in five years and saying it "should not have caught the Government off guard".

Wessex Water's hosepipe ban — its first in 50 years — came after demand hit 440 million litres per day during record-breaking summer heatwaves.

A bridge submerged for nearly 50 years has re-emerged at Wimbleball as water levels collapse to their lowest in living memory.