IN 2026 all of Wales and three-quarters of England were in drought before the middle of August. The water usage of data centres and the huge amount of water wasted through Thames Water leaks due to maintenance failure are among the issues in the frame.

It may well be the hottest summer on record against a backdrop of record temperatures in the 2020s. This has led to increased deaths and strikes by London bus drivers faced with 40°C heat in their cabs.

Reality has intruded on the climate change deniers of the political right a bit as a result. Most no longer deny it is happening but now claim there isn’t much that can be done. Some like Reform’s Richard Tice argue that people should just enjoy the hot weather.

The comparison is often made with another very hot summer, that of 1976, 50 years ago. On July 10 1976, Tony Benn was at his family home, Stansgate and recorded: “Still unbelievably hot. It’s been in the eighties and nineties for about a month now and the grass is absolutely brown.”

The Labour government took action and a Drought Act was passed. Speaking in the Commons on August 4 1976, Denis Howell, the minister responsible, addressed among other things, how much bath water it was appropriate to use.

In 50 years, the message has moved from individual behaviour to lack of corporate responsibility.

In 1976 water was yet to be privatised. Speaking in the Commons, Howell said: “We ask people not to use half-empty dishwashers and washing machines but to save up the wash until they have a full load. We ask people to cut down on bath water. I was about to say that they should cut it down to six inches, but I have discovered that one water authority is asking people to use only three inches, which seems even more difficult than what we were asked to do during the war. However, if people can have a shower instead of a bath and use their common sense about the amount of bath water they use, this will be very helpful. Leaky taps are another source of wastage which ought to be dealt with immediately.”

The Commons debate contains little of great interest. MPs agreed the Act was needed if perhaps late. A few far-seeing MPs wondered if the climate might be changing but didn’t go further.

Concerns were raised that with a hosepipe and non-essential watering ban in place the pitches at Lords and Wembley might be impacted (they were excluded). It was also established that watering of golf fairways was not allowed but the greens were acceptable. The water campaigner Feargal Sharkey has raised this issue again in 2026. Just as was done 50 years ago, the watering of golf course greens continues.

In 1976, Liberal MP Clement Freud noted that if people drank two pints of beer less a day it would save 23 gallons a person (11.5 gallons a pint) and six gallons saved in flushing the toilet twice. This is not a matter Nigel Farage has raised so far in 2026.

The summer of 1976 was a one-off and is seen nostalgically as such by those who are often now climate-change deniers. The summer heatwave is clearly not a one-off event but part of a pattern of global warming. In 1976, a Drought Act became law on August 24. It was followed by floods.

Andy Burnham’s government, seemingly keen to learn from the 1970s Wilson government, might look at the Act not as nostalgia but as a guide to action.