As the hosepipe bans are lifted following a deluge of wet weather, Channel 4 News asks if it is the UK economy heading for a drought.
South East Water, Sutton and East Surrey Water, Veolia Water Central and Veolia Water Southeast said the restrictions that have been in place since early April have now ended following the “abnormally heavy rainfall” that has deluged much of the country.
However, the wet weather is now set to bring its own problems for the UK economy as key industries suffer in the summer wash-out.
Seven water companies across southern and eastern England had brought in the hosepipe bans after two unusually dry winters left some groundwater supplies and rivers as low as in the drought year of 1976.
But Thames Water, Anglian Water and Southern Water all removed the restrictions last month – now known to be the wettest June since records began.
Double the average rain fell during the month while April was the wettest in records dating back more than a century to 1910.
Read more: Wettest June on record in UK
Rainfall in June reached 145.3mm – 200 per cent of the average for June. This followed the wettest April on record, when 121.8mm of water fell.
Figures show that these months also coincide with poor performances in two of the most important sectors for the economic health of the UK – retail and construction.
In April the high street suffered the biggest monthly plunge in retail sales volumes for two years. Two months later, and despite a major boost from the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, retail sales were “below average”, figures from the CBI show.
Construction output fell by 8.5 per cent in April compared with a year earlier, and by 13 per cent on the previous month, according to statistics from the Office of National Statistics.
In June, figures from financial information company Markit show, construction output suffered its sharpest fall in two and a half years.
Scott Corfe, senior economist at the Centre of Economics and Business Research, said: “The construction sector is already quite weather dependant and the construction sector has already been hit hard.
“It was the decline in construction that was a major factor in sending the UK back into double dip recession. And with the weather the way it is I think construction could be in for a pretty grim quarter.”
He added that the retail sector was also suffering heavily.
“We have seen a number of retailers discounting quite hard,” he said. “And that is partly due to the weather, and partly due to the continuing squeeze on household income.”
Richard Dodd, spokesman for the British Retail Consortium added: “What retailers want is weather that’s appropriate for the time of the year.
“When the weather doesn’t follow the script that creates difficulties.”
He said the retailers will have stocked up on items to sell for the warmer weather such as summer fashion, barbeques and outdoor leisure items.
Mr Dodd added that food stores can be more adaptable and so the weather will have had less of an impact. He also said that internet retailing may have received a boost from the weather.
Mr Corfe pointed out that some of the income for both the construction and retail sectors will come, just at a later date. “People will buy what they wanted to buy in a later quarter, and construction will resume,” he said.
Comfort for the UK comes from the services sector, including the much-maligned financial services, which makes up 75 per cent of the UK economy.
The sector is less effected by the weather, with services output growing by 2 per cent last April.