Spotted a leak out and about? 

No matter how big or small - if you spot a leak, let us know.

If you are without water because of a leak, or your request is urgent, don’t wait, call our free leak helpline on 08005 878 979 (You may be charged for this call from a mobile.)

Report a leak

Where is the leak showing?

Leak from a property?

Leak from a property?

We will investigate this leak but it may be on a private supply, in which case it would be the property owner's responsibility to make any necessary repairs. Leaks on the private supply are the responsibility of the home owner, click here for guidance and advice regarding leaks on your own supply.

How fast is the leak flowing?
Is your water supply affected?

No water?

If you are without water because of a leak don't wait, call our operational hotline on 08005 878 979 (24 hours a day). Leaks reported online will be responded to within one working week.

Is the leak causing damage?

Leak Timeline

From the moment you report a leak there’s a lot going on behind the scenes, our teams work around the clock to find and fix leaks. They can be up in the small hours repairing leaks on busy main roads, or they could be baking under the summer sun as they stand knee-high in gushing water.

There are 5 steps to the process of finding and fixing leaks. Some of these steps involve co-ordinating our work with local councils and highways. As you can imagine, this can take time which means we can't fix some leaks as quickly as we would like.

We’re fixing more leaks than ever before and quicker too, with all identified leaks fixed in 3.6 days on average.

Click the stages below for more information:

  • 1. Report
  • 2. Detect
  • 3. Plan
  • 4. Fix
  • 5. Reinstate

A leak is reported

  • You can report a leak on our website, by WhatsApp, on Social Media or by calling 0800 230 0561 and speaking to one of our friendly team

  • We’ll try to gather as much information as possible from you to help us locate the leak as quickly as possible and to understand the severity of the leak. We’ll then pass the details to our leakage team

  • If the leak is affecting customers supplies or is causing damage or flooding, our inspector will attend within 3 hours

  • Our inspectors will attend all other leaks by the end of the next working day

  • Our field teams are also out and about looking for leaks every day.

Detection

  • Our team of field inspectors will investigate and find exactly where the leak is coming from and the severity of the leak

  • You might see us with listening devices. Water moves around and it can be hard to pinpoint exactly where the leak is coming from

  • It is rare that we can repair the leak on our initial detection visit. If the leak is directly from the meter chamber or stop tap this could be done, however most leaks require excavations to repair

  • During the detection visit the inspector will survey for the works, details of location, traffic management, pipe sizes and materials, volume of leak, reinstatement type and materials and also any damage being caused or risk to supply interruptions

  • We’ll mark the area with blue paint so our repair team know where to dig to fix the pipe.

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We plan the repair

  • Depending on what our inspectors find, we’ll develop a plan and set a date to get the leak repaired

  • We aim to repair significant leaks or leaks that are causing damage within 8 hours

  • Leaks of a higher volume that are not causing immediate issues will be repaired within 2 working days

  • We also aim to repair all of our smaller low volume leaks within 7 working days

  • On average our leaks are repaired within 3.6 days

  • We’ll assess the impact to customers. If the pipe serves hundreds, or thousands, of customers we'll need to create a plan which minimises interruption when we turn off the water to carry out repairs. This might mean we need to use water from another part of our pipe network and tanker into the area. Tankering is when we use our Alternative Water Supply vehicles and pump water into the system to keep the network flowing whilst we carry out repairs

  • We often need to work with the local Highways Agency who have to grant us permission to work on the road, and we'll need to balance the urgency of our work with the impact on others who use the road.  In an emergency this will be within hours, for non emergencies this may take up to 12 weeks

  • Often roads have embargoes on them, for example we aren’t allowed on the Tour of Britain cycle route for some months prior to the event, unless there's an emergency. This is also often the case for traffic sensitive routes during peak periods

  • We will of course always ensure the safety of the team who will be completing the repair and of the general public.

We repair the leak

  • Our teams will attend on the allocated day to repair the leak

  • We’ll always aim to repair the leak without turning off the supply, however sometimes this isn’t possible, but rest assured we’ll get the water back on as soon as we can

  • Once the repair is completed, we’ll fill in the hole and permanently repair the road or pavement

  • If another incident comes up that needs an emergency repair, our team may be called off the job to sort it out, and we’ll be back to complete the repair as soon as we can.

Completing the job

  • In most cases we can put the area back to how it was by the end of the next working day including grass, gravel, pavements and the removal of any barriers or traffic management systems

  • On some occasions it may take longer to reinstate the area as this is governed by the road opening license, however this will depend on road type, size of diversion and traffic management. This will generally incorporate road or surface type, some surfaces need longer cooling or setting time before they can be reopened. Larger excavations will require more time to settle as backfilling is required to prevent sinkage. Also, access to the site, size of digger and vehicles to be able to backfill and finish, overhead cables will also hinder this. An assessment of all of this will be factored in when applying for the road opening license

  • We will always aim to reinstate as soon as possible and with the least disruption but we must also ensure the safety of the team and of the general public.

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No matter how big or how small - if you spot

a leak, let us know

 

Our team of leakage experts work around the clock pinpointing and fixing leaks as quickly as possible. We’re heavily investing in technology to help us use real-time data to make sure we do everything we can to find and fix leaks quicker.

We wouldn’t be able to find as many leaks and achieve one of the lowest levels for leakage in the industry without you.