MP urges water firm to put more profits into upgrades after Sheffield gas outage

Olivia Blake says not enough of Yorkshire Water's 242m profits used for infrastructure after gas network flooded

A private water company responsible for maintaining a 50-year-old asbestos-cement pipe that burst and left thousands of people in Sheffield without gas should spend much more" of its 242m annual profits upgrading its infrastructure, an MP has said.

With snow on the ground and temperatures below zero, at least 200 households in the area of north-west Sheffield were still without gas on Monday, 11 days after Yorkshire Water's mains pipe burst and flooded the gas network with more than 1.5m litres of water. About 2,000 homes were initially affected.