Thames admits it will take 30 years to fix water pipes

Londoners face 30 years of disruption after Thames Water admitted its programme to replace ageing pipes will last four times longer than anticipated.

The company began digging in central London in 2002 and it was believed the repair work would conclude in 2010.

But today the company's chief executive David Owens admitted that it still had more than 15,000km of mains to replace - and it was installing new pipes at a rate of 500km a year.

To date it has concentrated its efforts in central London, focusing on the City, West End and The Strand.

But it has been blamed by the Mayor for reducing the benefits of the congestion charge, with traffic speeds now roughly the same as they were in 2003, before the zone was launched.

Thames, which had the worst leakage rate in the country, was ordered by the industry watchdog to increase investment in repairs as punishment for losing so much water every day. It is replacing Victorian mains made from iron, which crack and corrode in London clay, with plastic pipes predicted to last 100 years. The company says the work should have been done in the Sixties.

Mr Owens, appearing alongside Mr Livingstone at his weekly City Hall press conference, said: "Leakage is an issue we are now tackling very positively and strongly. We have hit our leakage target last year and we will hit our leakage target this year.

"This year we are laying 500km of new mains. There are 15,000km of these mains down there."

Mr Livingstone said: "Although it's inconvenient and it does cause traffic delays, I think Londoners would rather live with the inconvenience. We have still eight per cent less congestion than before charging came in. If we didn't have the congestion charge I suspect central London would be gridlocked."

The firm said it had prioritised areas with the worst leaks. But it had to repair one "district metered area" at a time - covering about 1,500 homes - to ensure essential supplies by diverting water from nearby pipes.

Richard Aylard, the firm's external affairs director, said Thames Water was spending £500,000 a day on repairs but this was limited by regulator Ofwat because of the knock-on effect on bills. "We think that is as fast as we can go in terms of planning with our contractors, Transport for London and local authorities," Mr Aylard said.

"By 2010 we will have done 1,100 miles [1,770km] - The Strand, the City and Covent Garden - you can hardly get worse places to do than that.

"We are acutely aware they are not popular with the road users, but we do our best to say to people, 'We are coming down your street.' But they won't get unplanned bursts and leaks, which are much more disruptive."