Drought conditions UK

Parts of England are officially in a drought following the dry spring, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has said.

Areas of East Anglia are in drought, with parts of the south-west and south-east of England, the Midlands and Wales in a "near-drought" state.

In the drought-affected areas, Anglian Water and Cambridge Water say there is no threat to public water supplies.

But Severn Trent Water says there may be restrictions if rainfall stays low.

Both the south-east and central-southern regions of England have had their driest spring on record.

Across England and Wales as a whole it has been the driest spring since 1990.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman is set to hold a second drought summit to review the impacts of the continuing dry weather.

Ministers are holding a summit with farmers, water companies and environmental groups to discuss the way forward.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman says tough decisions have to be made.

"We'll look at how to prioritise who can abstract the water that we have because it's obviously really important to get that right to try and make sure that farmers have got enough to produce the crops for the food we need to eat.

And that is the worry. If crops fail, the knock-on effect is likely to be a more expensive shopping bill.

"It's adding to the upward pressures that are already there on food prices, things like the rising world demand and increasing production costs," said Richard Dodd from the British Retail Consortium.

"But I think it would be easy to exaggerate how significant it is because we rarely get a year when the weather is perfect for farmers."

At Adnams in Southwold they rely on barley. Head brewer

Mrs Spelman is set to hold a second drought summit to review the impacts of the continuing dry weather.

Defra made the announcement as the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) indicated that provisional data showed England had experienced its driest May according to records dating back 100 years.

Ahead of the publication of the latest monthly assessment of rainfall, river and water levels by the CEH, experts also said that by late May soils in large parts of eastern and central England were at their driest on record.

According to CEH, the biggest impact of the continuing dry conditions is in rivers, with waterways across much of southern Britain close to or at their lowest levels for this time of year.