BOSSES at United Utilities have praised staff after the firm met its leakage target for the fifth year running — despite the most severe winter for more than 100 years leading to tens of thousands of burst pipes.

As the North West water company announced its full year results to the city, chief executive Steve Mogford paid tribute to the employees who worked around the clock over the Christmas and New Year period tackling unprecedented numbers of burst and frozen pipes.

Mr Mogford said: “Despite a year of extreme weather conditions, United Utilities has demonstrated resilience and, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our employees, we have delivered vital services on tap and met our leakage target.”

Over the Christmas and New Year period, United Utilities took more than 80,000 calls from customers reporting burst and frozen pipes.

At the height of the cold snap the company took 10 times the usual volume of calls and was repairing 200 leaks a day.

Alongside the financial results the company also announced a strong start to its latest five-year investment programme, with £600 million spent on projects to upgrade drinking water and wastewater systems.

Mr Mogford added: “Our capital investment programme is delivering real qualityof- life improvements across the North West.”

Between 2010 and 2015 United Utilities will spend more than £3.6 billion on water quality and environmental improvements in the North West. It is also close to completing its West End Link water pipeline, a £120 million project connecting Merseyside and Greater Manchester.

Regulator Ofwat has the power to fine firms that fail to meet leakage targets — with potential penalties up to 10 per cent of their turnover — but United Utilities said it met its 2010/11 benchmark of 464 million litres a day.

The firm was unable to say how many millions of litres it was losing in leaks per day but has passed this detail to Ofwat, which will release a report in October.