Thames Water Lifts Hosepipe Ban

Thames Water has lifted its hosepipe ban.

Maybe next year they will have fixed all their leaks, so that a ban will not be necessary?

Thames Water Gets Bollocking From Boris

Boris Johnson has quite rightly summoned Thames Water bosses to City Hall, to give them a bollocking for flooding part of the Central Line yesterday.

The London Evening Standard reports that the mayor was “absolutely seething” after contractors broke a 24-inch mains pipe as they tried to fix a leak, leaving 300 passengers stranded underground and bringing 24 hours of chaos to the Central line.

Two million litres of water had to be pumped out of tunnels between Stratford and Mile End, before full services could be restored yesterday.

Mr Johnson, apart from wanting an explanation and assurances that Thames Water won't screw up again, also wants guarantees that Thames Water is “up to speed” in coping with the Olympics.

Good luck with that then!

Hosepipe Ban Remains

Thames Water, the company with "obscene leakage rates",  has told the Telegraph that the hosepipe ban will remain despite the fact that this was wettest April since records began in 1910.

Richard Aylard, director of sustainability and external affairs for Thames Water, said they were aware of the "irony" that heavy rain had set in after the hosepipe ban was announced.

"We had more than double the rain we would expect for the last month.

In fact, it hasn't really stopped raining since we and six other companies imposed 'hosepipe bans' on April 5. 

We are alive to this irony, and our contribution to the endless talking point that is the British weather."

Thousands of homes face a renewed risk of flooding after heavy rain lashed Britain overnight, and the rain looks set to continue.

Question For Thames Water

About this "drought" and hosepipe ban, really given that it's pissing down and will continue to do so for the coming week?

Thames Water's Obscene Leakage Rates

As hosepipe bans come into force (note, the water companies will not be enforcing these bans) it is worth noting that Thames Water, which serves 8.8 million customers, met its leakage targets over the past six years.

However, its leakage rates account for around 25% of the 2.6 billion litres it supplies a day to customers. In fact the leakage rate is five times higher than the 5% that will be saved by the hosepipe ban.


Thames Water leaks are enough to fill Wembley Stadium every 36 hours.

New Scientist’s environment consultant, Fred Pearce, said:

"Thames Water’s leakage rates are obscene.


Regulators and planning inspectors have been telling them for decades to get their act together – but the company’s efforts are sporadic and sometimes grudging."

Oh, and by the way, Thames Water increased its prices by 6.7% at the end of March.

Could it be possible that its "leakage targets" are not particularly challenging?

Thames Water Wastes Water

Thames Water sees a quarter of its total supplies wasted through leaks and burst pipes, despite hitting its Ofwat target to reduce leaks last year.

Thames Water has also been criticised for the amount of time it takes to repair leaks.

Figures obtained show that of 441 recent leaks in its area, just 210 were repaired within the five days promised by Thames Water, while 48 had still not been repaired after 20 days.

In one case Jeremy Gompertz QC reported a leak from a mains pipe into the basement of his flat in Highbury, north London, on nine separate occasions between December last year and February.

“It’s outrageous that when we’re threatened with water restrictions because of drought they can’t be bothered to come and remedy a leak which has been running for two months,” said Mr Gompertz, 41.

Elsewhere John Tamplin, a financial adviser from Henley-on-Thames, had to wait two days before Thames Water dispatched engineers to repair a burst pipe sending water gushing up through the paved drive of his home. The incident came just days after Oxfordshire was declared to be in a state of drought.

Mr Tamplin, 55, said: “I was just amazed that Thames Water could be so wasteful with the water when they are telling us to economise and look after this valuable resource.”

Thames Water has now apologised for the amount of time it takes to visit and repair leaks. A spokesman said: “We fix leaks in order of priority to prevent as much water as possible from being wasted. 

However, we recognise that in some cases the speed we fix leaks isn’t good enough. We are continually working to improve that.”

The firm, which last year made an operating profit of £600 million, pointed out it had cut leakage from its pipes by a third since its peak in 2004 and has invested millions of pounds in repairing leaks in recent years.

Source The Telegraph

Charges Up

"Thames Water said this week that it is pushing up water bills by 17%, it was accompanied by the usual stuff about overhauling our Victorian pipes. Thames Water is owned by Macquarie Bank, known as Australia's "millionaire factory" – an antipodean version of Goldman Sachs. I think we can guess where the money will trickle to."

Source The Guardian

Customer Care - Not!

Sent to Thames Water "customer services" and their CEO on 17 May. Needless to say, no one has bothered to answer:

"4 March 2009 you wrote to me advising that you owed me £120.74, and requesting that I ring you to obtain the credit.

26 March 2009 I rang and gave all necessary information, eg bank details, I was advised that the credit would be processed.

16 May 2009 I received a letter from you referring to my call of 26 March, asking for my utility bills.

16 May I rang your offshore third party "help" centre to ask why it took over 8 weeks to query the call I made in March, and why the credit had not been paid.

I asked 3 times as to why it took 8 weeks to send the letter, the first two times your "help" centre operative claimed to be looking up the details; the third time I asked she deliberately cut me off (note I know the difference between an accidental cut off and a deliberate one).

Please answer the following:

1 Why is there over an 8 week gap between my call and your letter?

2 Why do you need utility bills to process the credit repayment?

3 Why did you not ask for these when I called in March?

4 Why have you not credited my bank account with the money you owe me?

You have 24 hours for someone based in the UK (not your foreign third party call centre) to take ownership of this problem, to come back to me and resolve it to my satisfaction.

Failure to do so will result in me adding this story to my site www.thameswaterisshite.com I will also advise my many contacts in the media as to your incompetence.

BTW, do you really think that outsourcing your "help" centre to a disinterested, incompetent foreign third party really improves customer "care"?

The clock is ticking."

Advice To Thames Water

Work to your customers' timeframe wrt answering complaints, not your timeframe!

Splashing Out

The Guardian reports that the three executive directors at Thames Water shared almost £1M in bonuses last year.

David Owens, the chief executive, received a bonus of almost £662K taking his overall remuneration package to almost £823K.

Stephen Shine, chief operating officer, and Mark Braithwaite, chief financial officer, received bonuses of £192,600 and £130,700 respectively.

No doubt the owners of 15,000 properties in Merton that were without water yesterday for seven hours, because of a major burst on Merton High Street, will be pleased to hear this.