I work for a charity providing affordable sheltered housing for older people. In January 2024, we began refurbishing a building that was bequeathed to us.
We paid Thames Water to connect a water supply in February 2024. It wasn’t until November that it informed us that it would need permission from Transport for London (TfL) to close part of the road.
Since then, there has been no progress. Thames Water blames TfL which, it claims, keeps asking for extra information and requires 12 working days to respond when it is submitted.
The renovations are now complete but we are unable to rent the properties without a water supply. The delay could be costing the charity up to £6,900 a month in revenue.
JS, London
You first wrote to me at the beginning of March, 13 months after you had paid for the installation. Naively, I hoped that an overture from the press, highlighting the financial hit to your charity, might allow common sense to prevail over process.
As I was wading in, TfL was requesting yet another document from Thames Water which required another 12 working days to process.
Thames Water told me that TfL was to blame for repeatedly requesting amendments to its application for the road closure.
A Thames Water spokesperson said: “We have been engaging with TfL to secure a date for the works to proceed. We recognise how important this is to the charity.”
TfL, meanwhile, blamed it all on Thames Water for submitting incomplete applications. Its spokesperson said: “We have been working with Thames Water to resolve a number of issues with its application, and we continue to handle this in line with the longstanding agreements around permissions and timescales required for these works.”
The good news was that, after my contact, an installation date was agreed for late May. The bad news: it never happened. It appears that Thames Water had omitted to arrange a traffic management plan. It also omitted to let you know that the works could not proceed.
The company breezily told me you would have to wait until August for a new appointment and ignored my questions about compensation.
Last month, a year and a half after you paid for the installation, the property was finally connected. You are now in negotiations about an appropriate payout from Thames Water.
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