Thames Water admit customer service ‘fell short’ during floods last summer
By Hannah Neary, Local Democracy Reporter
A water company said it “let customers down” after 1,000 properties flooded across London last summer.
Thames Water has apologised to Londoners whose homes and businesses were severely flooded after intense storms on July 12 and 25.
The company has published a report on the findings of an internal review into how it prepared dealt with the storms, which left some residents with raw sewage spilling into their homes.
The report says Thames Water was slow to respond to the floods because it struggled to understand what caused them and their impact.
It also says the company did not plan for the storms properly, gave customers unclear messages about what to do, and failed to update local councillors and MPs about what was happening.
It adds: “On both occasions, the severity of the storms was more than expected and our customer service fell short of what people should rightfully expect.
“The two key areas in which we let our customers down were in our initial response on the ground, and how we could have better supported those trying to contact us.”
Around 1,000 buildings including homes, schools, businesses, hospitals and Tube stations were flooded during the storms – most of them on July 12, when a month’s worth of rain fell in an hour.
Sewers flooded in West London as heavy rainfall combined with high tides, which prevented drainage systems overflowing into the Thames.
Thames Water CEO Sarah Bentley also apologised to customers in a letter that said the company had changed the way it prepares for adverse weather and updated its flooding guidance.
It added: “I am deeply sorry for the devastating effects caused by the flooding events… we did not have the capability in place to provide a better response for our customers.
“The flooding events which took place in July, show how much we
need to do to turn things around for the better and we know that our immediate priority is to focus on getting the basics right.”
Thames Water has also paid for an independent review of the floods and the results are expected to be released in Spring.
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