Four in five adults have cut back on water use, survey suggests

More than four in five adults in Britain have taken at least one step to cut back on water use in the past month, including having shorter showers and not leaving taps running, a survey suggests.

Persistent dry weather this summer has left much of the country officially in drought and prompted water companies to encourage customers to reduce the amount of water used around the home.

Some 27 million people are also covered by hosepipe bans.

A total of 84% of respondents to a survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said they had taken at least one action to cut water usage over the past month.

The figure was highest among people aged 70 and over, at 90%, falling to 84% for those aged 50 to 69 and 81% for both 16 to 29-year-olds and 30 to 49-year-olds.

The most popular action reported was not leaving a tap running (64% of all survey respondents), followed by waiting until the washing machine or dishwasher is full before switching it on (55%) and taking shorter showers (40%).

A smaller percentage of respondents said they had used less tap water, including hosepipes, in the garden (36%), collected rainwater in a water butt (24%) and taken fewer showers or baths (23%).

Just 9% said they had fixed leaky pipes or taps.

Women are more likely than men to cut back on using water, the survey suggests.

Some 72% of females said they had not left a tap running in the past month, compared with 56% of males.

There were similar trends for waiting until the washing machine or dishwasher was full before switching it on (64% of women, 45% of men); taking shorter showers (44% and 35% respectively); and using less water in the garden (42% and 31%).

The ONS survey was carried out between July 1 and 26 and is based on responses from a representative sample of 3,490 adults aged 16 and over in Great Britain.