MP for Bedford and Kempston, Mohammad Yasin (Labour), has written directly to Anglian Water chief executive Mark Thurston to demand answers over persistent water leaks across the borough.
The letter follows a Bedford Independent report on Cater Street in Kempston, where a leak has reportedly discharged around 540 litres of drinking water an hour for four years.
The total loss could equal almost five million litres of clean water every year.
Read: Anglian Water refuses to face questions over four-year Kempston leak losing 540 litres an hour
The homeowner has also raised concerns about ground erosion beneath his property, including potential damage to his patio and house foundations.
In his letter, sent yesterday (Thursday), Mr Yasin expressed frustration at the waste. He noted that local people are currently being asked to follow hosepipe restrictions and conserve water supplies.
Yasin also highlighted unresolved leaks in other parts of Bedford Borough that he had been told about.
These include reported issues on Manton Lane, Mile Road, Castle Road, Church Lane, Albany Road, Shakespeare Road, Station Road in Millbrook, and Rothsay Gardens.
In a statement to the Bedord Independent, Mr Yasin said: “It cannot be right that the public are being asked to endure hosepipe bans and repeated calls to cut back on water use, as we saw during the drought over the summer, while huge volumes of water are being wasted through leaks.
“Customers are being told to use less while paying more for their water bills. That is simply not good enough.
“I have written to Anglian Water to demand answers and will be raising this issue in Parliament.
“The public deserve better than to be asked to make sacrifices while precious water is being lost through leaks that should have been fixed long ago.”
MP puts eight questions to water chief
The MP also confirmed he raised the matter during a routine meeting with the Environment Agency before submitting eight formal questions to Anglian Water.
He asked the utility company to reveal how many leaks remain outstanding in Bedford Borough, why the Kempston repair has been delayed, and what technical or legal obstacles are stalling progress.
Mr Yasin also requested a clear timetable of action for all unresolved cases across the borough.
In his letter, he wrote, ‘I appreciate that there will inevitably be circumstances where a repair cannot be completed immediately.
‘What is much harder for residents to accept is a lack of clear information about what is happening, why it is happening and when they can reasonably expect the problem to be resolved.
Corporate response
The Bedford Independent asked Anglian Water about the MP’s letter and his plan to raise it in Parliament.
The company again did not address the specific questions about communication or repair timelines.
An Anglian Water spokesperson instead said via email, “We don’t normally comment on individual customer issues, but we investigated your enquiry about the customer leak with our operations team.”
“They informed us that this is not a leak on Anglian Water’s network – it’s a shared customer-side leak that we are supporting the customer with through a formal process.”
A shared customer-side leak occurs on the private supply pipe that runs inside property boundaries to supply more than one home, rather than on the public water main in the street.
Because the pipe is shared, financial responsibility for maintenance and repairs usually falls on the property owners who share that supply.
Under Anglian Water’s own published guidelines, any leak losing more than eight litres per hour must be addressed within 30 days.
If a customer-side leak is not repaired within that 30-day window, water companies have legal powers under Sections 75(2)(b) and 170 of the Water Industry Act 1991 to issue formal notices.
This allows the company to step in, complete the necessary repairs directly, and recover the costs from the property owners.
