A north London council leader has criticised Thames Water, saying residents were being hit by soaring bills, burst pipes and road closures.
The utilities giant was hauled before councillors at Islington Council to account for its performance after residents raised concerns about disruption caused by repairs, and high bills.
At a meeting on Thursday, councillors accused the company of greed, citing cases of water outage in the borough and residents being unable to get through to Thames Water to resolve problems.
Council leader Una O’Halloran, speaking at a special scrutiny meeting to grill Thames Water at Islington Town Hall, said: “People are going to pay for your mistakes. It’s shameless.
“We brought you to account over the impact on businesses, and you haggled on insurance and everything else.”
She accused the company of “greed,” adding: “I know some of you are relatively new to this, but it’s all about profit.
“Some people have had the gravy train, and now in the years to come our residents are going to pay more money.
“You can’t treat people like this. You need to get on with your job. It’s horrendous.”
Last year, large sections of Pentonville Road in north London were closed after a burst water main flooded the street.
The flooding in August caused disruption to homes and businesses on the major north London street near King’s Cross.
However, Thames Water has vowed to fix the problem, with work underway on a £20m programme of upgrades in the area.
The work on 1.2 miles of pipes in Islington began in February last year, with officials at Thames Water describing it as “mission” to drive down leakage from antiquated Victorian pipes.
The Standard has contacted Thames Water for further comment.
