Westminster Council apologises after residents' tap water turns brown and smells like petrol

The issue affected tenants living in Morgan House on the Lillington and Longmoor Gardens Estate following an incident in April 2025. Many residents have since said that they are scared to use the water as they don’t believe the council has carried out sufficient testing of their building's water supplies.In June 2025, Morgan House residents told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) they had been experiencing foul water for two months and had noticed their skin becoming irritated and itchy.Council officers promised to write a formal letter of apology to all residents following a meeting on July 7, and also agreed to test all relevant water supplies so that residents could be sure the water was safe to drink. The tap water in Morgan House turned brownAdrian Zorzut / LDRSSpeaking following the 7 July meeting, Ernest Stafford, who lives on the estate, said: "No resident should ever smell a petrol‑type substance in their tap water. Industry guidance says any hydrocarbon odour should trigger an immediate investigation."Instead, residents spent a year doing the work themselves - we had to become Erin Brockovich while being blocked and brushed aside."The housing function wasn't equipped to deal with such an incident: the councillor responsible lacked the experience, officers didn't follow guidance or established due diligence, and Stuart Love, the [Westminster City Council] CEO, didn't intervene."“We just now need Westminster council to identify the cause of this contamination and establish how safe our water is going forward," he added.While the council had repeatedly told residents that it believed the issue was with the Thames Water supply, the water company said that their tests of the incoming water showed no issues.Read MoreResidents also say that the water coming from their hot water taps was affected during the incident.Thames Water said that their tests showed no issuesPA ArchiveWestminster City Council said that statutory pH tests on the hot water supply in the plant room came back as normal - however, standard pH testing would not show the presence of hydrocarbons in the water.In June and July 2025, the council tested all three water supplies for hydrocarbons which came back as normal.Residents were told that the discolouration had been caused by disrupted iron sediment in the tank.Tenants say that the council tests on hot water are not reliable as they were taken from an empty flat where no one had been living.As well as comprehensive testing of the building's water supplies to reassure residents, the council agreed to carry out an investigation into what caused the water's smell and discolouration.Council officers will also carry out recommendations by the Housing Ombudsman, which found "service failure" in its handling of the incident.An Ombudsman report found that the landlord did not log the brown water incident in line with its housing emergency protocol, and that it was delayed in reporting the event to the water company.Councillor Ed Pitt Ford, who represents Pimlico North, said: “I am incredibly grateful that the new administration is treating this incident with the severity that it deserves. “Residents not only had to put up with contaminated water but they then had to deal with refusals to carry out the appropriate testing, a dismissive attitude from all levels to their valid concerns and a complete absence of leadership. “It’s deeply upsetting to see the system that should protect people, close ranks and deny reality in an attempt to protect their reputation.“I look forward to now having a thorough investigation, championed by the new Conservative administration, into what happened, to ensure it does not happen again, along with thorough testing to confirm that the water is currently safe to use.”