Yorkshire tops 'list of shame' for water leaks

Regulator Ofwat's Service and Delivery report found that Yorkshire Water was 7.3 per cent over its leakage target for 2009-10 – the worst of any of the 21 water companies in England and Wales.

The regulator said that although water companies continued to deliver good, reliable service to most consumers, dealing with leaks was a serious concern as Cambridge, Dee Valley, Northumbrian, Southern, Veolia Central and Yorkshire all missed their leakage targets.

Its report also found that complaints had fallen to their lowest level for four years, drinking water quality in the UK remains among the best in Europe and that all companies achieved their targets to make sure supply levels meet customers' needs.

Ofwat's chief executive officer Regina Finn, said: "People can shop around for the best deal on many things, but not water. We are here to make sure customers get a fair deal. Services are generally improving, but there are still areas for concern.

"We take any leakage failures seriously. Most companies stepped up to the challenge of tackling leakage during a particularly harsh winter. Those who haven't, we have put on notice."

She warned that action would be taken if companies continue to underperform:

"In the last five years, companies have had to pay out more than 500m, from their own pockets, following under-performance.

"We've made sure that the bulk of this money has been spent on giving something back to customers, either through reduced bills or investment in improving services.

"That's why when certain companies consistently failed to manage leakage, we made sure they invested an extra 195m of shareholders' money putting the problem right.

"Although last year's leakage failures did not put customers' supplies at risk, future challenges such as climate change and population growth mean that valuing this precious resource is more important than ever before."

Ofwat is monitoring the companies that failed to meet their targets, but said it was still investigating Yorkshire Water's leakage failure and the way it reported leaks.

Cold weather can make tackling leakage harder and the failures occurred during the coldest winter for over 30 years, all the water companies reporting high numbers of burst pipes.

In statement, Yorkshire Water said: "Yorkshire Water has a proven track record of achieving its leakage targets, so we're disappointed not to have met our goal for the first time since they were introduced 13 years ago.

"We had an extremely challenging winter in Yorkshire, with our employees working tirelessly in difficult conditions to ensure we maintained customers' supplies through the worst weather in 30 years. Nor did we have to impose any water restrictions in the dry spring and summer months that followed.

"We are in ongoing discussions with Ofwat to agree our future leakage targets and we hope to reach a conclusion soon.

Ofwat has previously taken action against companies who have

consistently underperformed on leakage.

In 2006, Thames Water was told to spend 150m addressing its failures and the following year Severn Trent had to invest 45m.

Ofwat's report also looked at investment over the last five years.

During this time 22,000km of water mains have been replaced or improved and 2,700 individual sewerage schemes have been created.