The only reason there was a ban in the first place is because United Utilities is (excuse my french) crap! they are in amongst the 3 worst water company's in the country. If they concentrated more on leakage then they wouldn't have to issue out a hose pipe ban + i saw on the television the other week that a customer phoned them up to report a leak, a technician got sent out, investigated and then a year later nothing had been done / the leak was still there. Thing is to improve there mains network they need more money but Ofwat wont give it to them due to there performance figures so to save money they are throwing out hose pipe bands.. just flaunt it, its there own fault not yours
I work for Essex & Suffolk Water (in the leakage department funny enough) and even though we are the driest county in the country we haven't needed to issue a hose pipe ban in 3 or so years because are leakage is so low, low enough that its kept us amongst the top 3 water company's in the country for god knows how long. So if you want to carry on washing your cars with hose pipes and not have to worry about bans move down south lol