How do these water authorities gain the power to impose a legal ban, that can lead to a fine?

Do they have to first apply to the courts to implement this ban?

Mrs Hfuhruhurr will be very disapointed.

Its a provision in the Water Industry Act (Section 76), that basicly says what Water compaines can and can not do.

The solution is simple just make everybody have metered water so you pay for the water you consume. That way rather than the nanny state telling you what you can and can't do it's up to the individual to make the decision of whether to use a hosepipe and then pay the extra costs.

Doesn't work when there are shortages.

Then you just increase the price. If necessary make it high enough that the revenue gained from people using hosepipes will pay for desalination plants and pipes to bring in water from the ocean.

Double whammy - using sea water to spray onto gardens will also reduce the ocean levels at a time when they are supposed to be rising = we all win.

re-nationalise the water industry, why should a basic neccessity of life turn massive profits for companies/individuals?
The sad fact is the water companies have had 20+ years to get their arses into gear over the monumental leakages and still they haven't put a dent in them despite more tax payers money to fund much of the repairs/new pipes. To have the audacity to say don't use water is a kick in the face though I do believe everyone should be on a meter so it is a fairer system all round & puts some onus on people to think about how they use water so it can benefit not just financially but from an enviromental POV also.

I actually had to pay for my meter when I bought my house some 16 years ago & it's saved me quite a few thousand pounds in the interim. I even managed to save money for my nan in her bungalow and now all her friends have one fitted too.

This is the one out of all the industries that got de-nationalised that has irked me

It's called - the global water shortage crisis.

Right now we're on the cusp of a battle (at a time when seemingly all governments have bought into the notion that they have to hand everything over to the private sector) over who is going to control water and how are we going to deal with this coming water shortage. On the one hand you have a bunch of very large transnationals, the World Bank, the WTO, EU etc. who say give it to the private sector - it's going to become real expensive real soon so let it find its proper market value (which also takes into account 15 to 20 percent return on your investment) and let it go to what's known as "full cost pricing" where you pay for every litre at full cost. On the other side of the fight is a small group of people who say there has to be another way.

Unfortunately the power lies with the money and if the money says enforce hose pipe bans the government is only too pleased to write the legislature.

You really need to familiarise yourself with the terms and conditions of the WTO and the EU. After all, your government(s) agreed to it.