Following the replacement of 1,400 miles of worn-out Victorian pipes in London, leakage is now at the lowest level in Thames Water’s history, at 600m litres per day across its 20,000-mile network of mains.

The company has cut 345m litres of leakage a day, reducing it by more than a third since its peak in 2003.

However, despite losing significantly less water through leaks, Thames Water is  still urging customers to continue to report leaks and bursts leaks this winter on its Leakline, 0800 714614, and via Twitter, @thameswater, when the cold weather leads to an inevitable increase in broken pipes.

The company also urged customers to lag pipes in their homes to prevent potentially damaging bursts caused by water freezing solid.

Lawrence Gosden, Thames Water’s capital delivery director, said:

“Since starting our rolling programme of mains replacement in 2003, we've replaced 1,400 of the 10,000 miles of worn-out pipes under London. We've replaced the leakiest pipes in the busiest areas of central London first. This is a good start but there's plenty of work still to do to keep leakage heading in the right direction.

"This year we have fixed 57,800 leaks. That’s one leak every nine minutes on average, and the frequency always increases when temperature fall to 4 degrees C and below, causing our old cast-iron pipes to contract and break."

Since April this year, 50 miles of pipe has been replaced. The next project in London started this week in Stepney with the replacement of a further four miles of worn-out pipe. The work will be completed by March 2013.