How we manage incidents

If customers are without water for more than 24 hours, we’ll ensure that you have at least 10 litres available each day (per person). In that rare instance that your water supply is interrupted for over 5 days, we'll make sure there's at least 20 litres available each day (per person). 

Stations will be determined by each incident but we usually set up in local supermarket or pub car parks. These stations are normally a source of water from tanks for you to collect water from. We update these station locations on our website and our phone line. It is important if attending a water station to bring your own water containers.

It’s difficult to estimate a repair time until we know what we are dealing with and in many cases, excavation has begun, and problem identified. We will keep you updated on progress via our website and social media channels. Our aim will always be to get water flowing back to homes as quickly as possible.

Following a burst main, you may also experience some discolouration to your water when the supply is restored. This is normally short lived as we carry out flushing of the water mains. Once the work is complete and your supply is restored, please allow time for us to complete the flushing and then run your first mains fed cold water tap for up to 30 minutes to clear any discoloured water in your pipes.

If you're on a water meter, and we’ve told you to run your taps to clear discoloured water, you can claim for an allowance off your next bill.

If you are on the Priority Service register our aim is to support those customers most in need and dependent on water as quickly as possible. You will be contacted via SMS (text) or telephone call as soon as we are aware of the issue. If we do need to visit your home, we will always knock and wait as we know you may need more time to get to the door and if you have a password we will use it.

The reason you are on the register is important, and each reason is assigned a priority.

Priority 1:

Dialysis feeding pump and automated feed, water dependant or heart lung ventilator.

Priority 2

Unable to answer door, cognitive impairment (inc. dementia), nebuliser and apnoea monitor, oxygen concentrator, blind, stair lift/hoist/electric bed, physical impairment, temp - post hospital, chronic serious illness, oxygen use, medicine refrigeration, medically dependent - showering/bathing, or restricted hand movement.

Priority 3

Partially sighted, careline/telecare or poor sense of smell/taste.

Priority 4

Hearing impairment, pensionable age, development condition, mental health, unable to communicate in English, families with children under 5, additional preference preferred, temp - life change, temp - young adult or speech impairment.

In an incident Priority 1 customers are recognised as most in need and and are therefore part of our Core Priority Service Register (CPSR).

If you are on the CPSR, and depending on the reason you have registered, under our Customer Promise in the event of an incident:

• We’ll communicate with you in your preferred way or speak with your nominated contact on your behalf
• If your water supply is interrupted for more than 4 hours, we’ll make sure bottled water is delivered to your home. We aim to get this to you within 12 hours, unless your supply is restored sooner. To avoid disturbing your rest, deliveries are paused overnight between 9pm and 9am. However, if you need bottled water during these hours, please contact us.
• If we fail to do any of the above, we’ll automatically pay you £100.

We will make any payments within 20 working days. If we don’t, we’ll pay you an additional £40 for the delay.

Please see our Customer Promise for more information.

Our Customer Promise and payments were updated as from 1 October 2025.

If you are experiencing difficulties please call us on 0345 702 3797.

You can sign up to access our Priority Services for free, it only takes a few minutes and you can pick which services you’d like to receive.

It’s rare for us to visit you without a pre-arranged appointment, but we might need to in an emergency. All our employees carry identification cards which display their name, photograph and our company logo. Always check a caller’s identity card before letting them into your home, and if you’ve agreed a password in advance, make sure that they give it to you.

If we don’t restore your water supply within 12 hours of being notified of the problem we will:

Automatically pay you £50, plus an additional £50 for each further 12-hour period your supply remains unrestored*.

We’ll issue the payments within 20 working days. If we don’t, we’ll pay you a further £40 for the delay.

*We must be able to identify you as being affected by proposed interruption to your water supply and you have not made a claim within three months of the date on which the supply was cut off. Payment will also not be given if the interruption is due to drought, or due to a disconnection made under sections 61 or 62 of the Water Industry Act 1991. Any payments made are up to a cap of twice the customer’s annual water supply charge.

Please see our Customer Promise for more information.

Our Customer Promise and payments were updated as from 1 October 2025.

If there's a problem with the quality of the tap water we supply to you, we'll do everything we can to fix it as quickly as possible. We will also issue a 'restriction of use' notice, if you need to stop using your water temporarily.

This is always a rare occurrence, we will always hand-deliver information to your door along with adding information and updates to our website and social media channels.

If we need to issue a notice that covers the following situations, we will automatically pay you £40* for the initial 48-hour period, then £20 for each subsequent full 24-hour period.

• ‘Do not drink’ notice
• ‘Do not use’ notice
• ‘Boil water’ notice

We will make this payment within 20 working days. If we don’t, we’ll pay you an additional £40 for the delay.

*Payment will not be made where the water used for supply was polluted or contaminated by the customer contrary to section 72 or 73 of the Water Industry Act 1991, the water quality notice was served due to drought (or immediately following a period of drought), or where the water supply was cut off or interrupted. The amount someone can receive is capped at the annual water bill amount for the property.

Please see our Customer Promise for more information.

Our Customer Promise and payments were updated as from 1 October 2025.