Severn Trent Water has said it will compensate all 3,700 customers, both domestic and business, who were directly affected for an extended period of time by loss of their water supply as a result of Friday's over-chlorination incident.

All the water company’s customers in Derbyshire and Leicestershire have been told they can now use their water as normal, after first running the cold tap at full flow for five minutes.

However,  Severn Trent has separately had some reports of people getting discoloured water through their taps - something the utility says it is working hard to rectify, although it has no reason to believe that there is any risk to health. The water company added that some customers may also notice a slight difference in the taste of the water while it gets the network back to normal which would settle down shortly.

A statement issued by the company said:

“We’re really sorry for the inconvenience we know this has caused.  We want to reassure you that the health of our customers is our absolute priority, and this was a precautionary measure due to the levels of chlorine in the water supply.”

“We’re investigating what caused the problem and identifying how we will compensate all 3,700 customers, both domestic and business, who were directly affected for an extended period of time.”