what I, or any other member of the public, can do about the apparent indifference of a water company to the maintenance of vital infrastructure. In this case Thames Water will have some interest, and a proportion of its revenues will be spent repairing and upgrading old pipework, but who, other than Thames Water is to say if a greater proportion should be allocated for this? Is there a process whereby statistically significant numbers of problems such as this one in which [the Consumer Council for Water has] been involved can oblige water companies to increase their future spending, or review how money is spent on repairs? Or even that Thames Water's default response to a reported problem appears to be to blame someone else?

From cases such as this - Thames Water agrees £86m Ofwat settlement - it would appear that OfWat is the relevant regulator , but do the complaints of ordinary people get heard by them?

I wonder also how good an idea the Consumer Council for Water has of the scale of the problems, given that relatively few people know of your existence. Are you aware, for example, of other problems as reported on a nearby local Forum - [i.e. here] but which also appear as reported to Thames Water here?



Is the Consumer Council for Water, perhaps working with OfWat, able to monitor the appearance of such reports and be proactive, rather than just react to approaches such as mine?

Copying in here some possibly interested people from LB Lewisham