Sir, Thames Water seem to have got away again very lightly, with their regular annual warning about the shortage of water, underlined this time by a hosepipe ban. A recent article in The Investors Chronicle quoting figures from Ofwat, the water regulator, pointed out that 33 per cent, one third of all the Thames Water supply, leaks away in transit, it just never gets there. Some leakage is inevitable, but this is a leakage rate which is 50 per cent worse than, twice as bad as, the average in this country for the rest of the water industry.

Ofwat grades all 23 water suppliers according to the balance between their supply infrastructure and the demand they are required to fulfil. Thames is again bottom of the league, with relatively the lowest potential supply of water per customer available in the industry, in this country.

Looking at the other side of the coin, the bonuses paid to the Thames Water directors are among the highest, worth 87 per cent of salary in 2004. Should we not be exhorting them much more strongly to spend more of their millions on reducing the leaks and increasing their supply capacity and less on their very comfortably rewarded bosses.

G.R. Basker, Kirtlington