Thames Water have apologised to a father recovering from throat cancer who said he was "reduced to tears" by a delay in fixing a broken pipe which has caused sewage to leak into his home.

David Parker, assistant headteacher at Davenant Foundation School in Loughton, hit out at Thames Water after it said they could not begin to repair the offending pipe until Friday – two weeks after it was first reported.

A Thames Water spokeswoman said: “We’re sorry we’ve not solved the problem yet.

"We’ve inspected the sewer using CCTV and need to carry out more investigations before we can plan the repair.

"We will do all we can to resolve the issue as soon as possible.”

Mr Parker's home in Church Street, Waltham Abbey, had been left without water and he had to move his family out as the sewage has made it uninhabitable.

The spokeswoman insisted the water problem was of no fault of the company.

She said: “The issue of Mr Parker not having hot water was a separate problem with a valve inside in his property which we fixed for him for free at the weekend.

“The problem was not due to any faults with our network or the mains water supply into his property.”