Swathes of England are officially in drought today amid scorching temperatures and hardly any rain since June as supermarkets began rationing bottled water to prevent panic buying and millions more households edged closer to a hosepipe ban.
Residents in the South West, Southern and Central England and East of England have been move into drought status where they are being urged to be frugal with water use because of the driest summer in 50 years with no rain and 35C