Water Supply: Compensation

(asked on 2nd June 2026) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what rights to compensation or redress are available to customers whose mains water pressure is reduced to a level that impairs normal domestic use.


Answered by
Emma Hardy Portrait
Emma Hardy
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 10th June 2026

Customers are protected through statutory standards and compensation arrangements where water company service falls short. When water pressure falls below these standards and normal domestic use is impaired, customers may be entitled to compensation through the Guaranteed Standards Scheme.

Water company performance, including the reliability of supply, is subject to regulatory oversight by Ofwat, and companies are held to account where outcomes do not meet required standards.

We have strengthened these protections in recent reforms, including increasing compensation payments and ensuring customers are properly reimbursed following disruption, alongside plans for a new independent Water Ombudsman to provide binding decisions and improve access to redress where issues arise.

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