Water shortage threat causes butt sell-out

Britain’s suppliers of water butts are quoting delays of up to eight weeks to garden centres across the South East of Britain who have sold out in a wave of panic-buying.

The threat of water shortage and hose pipe bans have sent homeowners scurrying around the garden centres and horticultural stores looking for any water butts they can find.

Queues formed at sales of cut-price water butts held Southern Water and even though some 4,000 butts were on offer, they were all gone by early afternoon. A spokeswoman for Southern Water said the supplier was unable to cope with demand.

In other parts of the UK the demand has risen too. In the West Country demand for butts has risen by 60% despite the plentiful supply of water in the West and no threat of water restrictions from South West Water.

Demand in the South West has likely been motivated by the very high price of water supplies in the area and accelerated by recent further large rises as much as by rumours of the shortage.

Some manufacturers said they were dealing with the problem by returning old equipment to use and hoped to reduce the waiting time.