Drought Threatens Window Cleaners

Hosepipe law could threaten window cleaners

By Graham Tibbetts
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 23/10/2007

The livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of window cleaners could be threatened by a tough new hosepipe law, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Under a Government proposal to tackle future droughts, it would be illegal to use hosepipes for a number of activities, from filling swimming pools to cleaning windows.

Up to half the nation's estimated 400,000 window cleaners have recently dispensed with the traditional bucket and sponge in favour of a ladder-free system of poles which relies on hosepipes.
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Andrew Lee, vice-chairman of the Federation for Window Cleaners, said: "It's going to be disastrous if we are included in the ban. I can't encourage people to break the law but that's what these boys are going to be faced with."

The concern follows moves by the Government to update the 62-year-old drought legislation, which only restricts the use of hosepipes for watering gardens and washing cars.

The new law would allow water companies to enforce a "discretionary use" ban, outlawing virtually all domestic activities involving hosepipes.

Window cleaners, under pressure from health and safety legislation which discourages the use of ladders, have been converting their businesses to water-fed poles.

The cleaners fill a tank in their van with mains water via a hosepipe.

The water is piped from the van to a brush on the end of the pole, allowing cleaners to wash windows up to 60ft high without ladders.

Mr Lee, who has a business in Cumbria, said many cleaners had spent around £15,000 upgrading to the new system.

"To go down the water-fed pole route you're looking at a Transit van with a 650-litre tank that has to be fitted.

Then you've got poles that cost £1,000 apiece. A lot of people have taken out loans to finance the transition," he said.

A spokesman for the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs confirmed that water-fed poles would be covered by a hosepipe ban under the law but said: "Window cleaners could still revert to a bucket and sponge."