Property Ladder presenter Sarah Beeny is drawing attention after aerial photos showed the grounds of her £3million Somerset estate largely brown and dry, despite no hosepipe ban being in place for her local water supplier. The images highlight the contrast between the parched 220-acre grounds, which include a boating lake and thatched boathouse, and Beeny's past public advocacy for water-saving measures, including reusing bathwater with her family.

The property is supplied by Wessex Water, which has a 50-year record without imposing a hosepipe ban, though it has urged customers to cut usage as local reservoirs sit at roughly 58 per cent capacity following the Environment Agency's declaration of a drought in Somerset on 29 July. Nationally, around 45 million people in England are living in drought-affected areas, with 27 million under hosepipe restrictions. Beeny's estate has separately been embroiled in an eight-year planning dispute over an "illegal" farmhouse extension, which she now appears likely to be allowed to keep after a council planning committee chair backed the application, angering some neighbours.