Speaking to delegates at a Consumer Council for Water meeting in London this week, Aylard said that London had faced near misses in recent years and that it “will happen” in the future.
“The demand is going up, water availability is going down and our climate is changing,” he said.
According to Aylard, metering is the fairest way to charge for water, “puts customers in charge of their bills” and will help reduce the amount of water wasted by households in a region described by the Environment Agency as “seriously water-stressed.”
Last summer Thames Water began a 15-year programme to roll out smart meters across the whole of its region starting in Bexley, southeast London.
Aylard said that one major benefit from the rollout would be a reduction in leakage, with 60 per cent of the benefits in this area compared with only 40 per cent coming from customer demand.
In terms of customer behaviour, Aylard suggested that with recent levels of heavy rainfall, education would not be enough to change attitudes.
“You can talk about water efficiency until you are blue in the face but as soon as you get meters in you can really start getting to grips ,” he said.
Aylard also said Thames would try and beat Southern Water’s metering roll-out for value, which has seen 60 per cent of metered households with a reduction in bills and 40 per cent worse off financially.