Image description: Water surface reflecting sunlight. Photo by Stuart Timms on Unsplash

A Planning Inspectorate hearing into Southern Water’s applications for a drought order on the River Test and a non-essential use ban began on 25 August, as continued dry conditions place mounting pressure on water resources across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Southern Water applied to Defra for the orders on 31 July, seeking temporary changes to its abstraction licence conditions that would allow it to continue taking water from the river at flows below the level at which it would normally be required to stop. The company says the application reflects an exceptional shortage of rainfall and the resulting strain on its resource base.

What the drought order would allow, and what is at stake

Under normal licence conditions, Southern Water must halt abstraction from the River Test when river flows fall below a certain threshold, a protection designed to safeguard the river’s ecology. The drought order would temporarily suspend that requirement, allowing abstraction to continue at lower flows. The environmental implications are significant. The River Test is one of England’s most celebrated chalk streams, supporting protected species including salmon, and objectors have warned that the proposed changes could have a “devastating effect” on this sensitive ecosystem. The Environment Agency’s latest drought report confirms that the order would permit abstraction at flow levels where Southern Water would otherwise be legally required to stop.

Questions over earlier decisions

Beyond the immediate environmental concerns, the hearing is also expected to scrutinise Southern Water’s investment and planning decisions in the lead-up to the application. Objectors are raising questions about whether the situation could have been avoided through earlier action and alternative supply strategies, a line of challenge that, if sustained, would cast the drought order not merely as a response to exceptional conditions but as a consequence of insufficient long-term planning. For the wider sector, this dimension of the hearing will be worth watching closely: it touches on the broader question of how water companies demonstrate that drought orders are genuinely a last resort rather than a substitute for proactive resource management.