Leakage experts from across Northumbrian Water have been working harder than ever to repair leaks and save water.
In 2025, over 10,000 repair jobs were completed by the leakage team, an average of 833 per month. In January and February of 2026, a total of 1,772 jobs were completed.
Northumbrian Water has upgraded 45 district meters in the last 12 months. The district meters separate out areas of the network and monitor the flow of water through the network, so it is easier for the teams to identify when there is a potential problem and investigate for leaks.
As well as this, the teams have also been deploying innovative new tactics to tackle leaks this year – such as using satellite technology to pinpoint exact locations of bursts to enable faster fixes and using drones to help reach remote areas.
It comes as Northumbrian Water is investing c.£4.5bn in total in the region between 2025 and 2030. This is the largest investment programme in the last 30 years.
All leaks are different but to give a recent example of a leak that was the customer’s responsibility to fix, saw a water saving of 0.13 litres of water per second; that’s the equivalent of 75 baths every 24 hours.
Jim Howey, Head of Water Networks for Northumbrian Water, said: “I’m very proud of our teams for pulling together and completing such an impressive number of jobs last year. This is good news for our network and, most importantly our customers, as we create resilience going into 2026.
“We look at unusual activity on the network, high demand in certain areas and unexpectedly high customer bills, to identify any possible leaks and use this as a way of finding and fixing the problem. This means there are several teams across the business who contribute to this effort.
“Then we have the ground crews who are out working in all weathers to carry out the work to make the repair, using their skills to identify the problem and find a solution.”
If you see a leak, you can report it via the company’s leakage portal on the website: Fix A Leak On My Property | What To Do When You Have A Leak