Thames Water criticised for Boxing Day outages

Thames Water said specialist engineers are "working hard" to return supplies to parts of Guildford, Surrey

Thames Water has apologised following "hugely inconvenient" supply issues in a town on Boxing Day.

It comes as chancellor Jeremy Hunt, MP for South West Surrey, criticised the supplier for the outages in parts of Guildford.

"I have to say I am beside myself with frustration that this is happening *again* and over Christmas," he said in a post on X.

Alastair Cochran, interim co-chief executive officer of the water firm, said he was "very sorry" for the disruption.

Residents in parts of the GU4 and GU5 postcodes have experience no water or low pressure.

In another post to X, Mr Hunt said: "I know many of you are hosting friends and family and this water outage is hugely inconvenient."

'Disruptive and inconvenient'

He added he had raised the question of bottled water in impacted areas and requested Thames Water ensured vulnerable people were looked after.

A spokeswoman for the firm said: "We know how disruptive and inconvenient this can be, especially on a festive holiday.

"Our engineers are on site and have stopped the flow of water which will reduce the number of properties affected."

The supplier said it would be carrying out repairs "as quickly as possible" and would be using tankers to help keep customers in supply in the meantime.

Mr Cochran added: "As soon as we have an update, we’ll let you know how soon we’ll get things back to normal."

In November, a major incident was declared after thousands of customers in the Guildford and Godalming area were left without water for several days.

Thames Water apologised and said Shalford treatment works in Guildford had faced issues after Storm Ciarán.

In response, Mr Hunt and fellow Conservative MP for Guildford, Angela Richardson, organised a public meeting where Mr Cochran said the company had failed to communicate with customers.

In June, Sarah Bentley, the former CEO of Thames Water, resigned with immediate effect over the company's poor performance.