With half of England officially in drought and residents threatened with a £1,000 fine for using hosepipes, more than half a million litres of clean water has been wasted because of bungling authorities.

The leak, outside a block of flats in Seddon Road, Morden, was reported to Thames Water on January 7 by residents.

But, more than three months later, it continues to gush about 3.6l of water every minute – meaning nearly 600,000l of clean water have been lost.

Merton residents have been banned from using hosepipes since April 4, and the waste would have been enough to water about 1,000 gardens.

Thames Water only sent a contractor to investigate the leak on March 25, but it did nothing more than dig a hole, build a safety zone around it, and write a note that said “council to take over leak”.

Merton Council said it was “not its responsibility” because the land was owned by a “private landowner”, later revealed to be Merton Priory Homes (MPH) – the non-profit housing association to which all the council’s social housing was transferred in 2010.

Until this newspaper investigated the issue, Thames Water was not aware MPH owned the land and said it did not have the authority to fix the leak until it was given permission from the council.

Merton Council finally informed Thames Water that MPH was the landowner on Tuesday.

Dave Charnley, who reported the leak and measured the water loss, said it was “disgusting” Thames Water could threaten residents with a £1,000 ban for using a hosepipe but has taken no action against Merton Priory Homes, (MPH), which owns the land.

The Seddon Road resident said: “I rang the council and Thames Water but nothing has happened. After 15 weeks the water is leaking out into the road.

“If I stood outside my front door with a hosepipe I could get a £1,000 fine but when it’s MPH nothing happens.

"Why don’t they at least get a warning?”

A Thames Water spokesman said he understood residents’ frustrations but its contractors could not fix the leak until it was given authorisation.

He said: “For jobs like this, like any leak on private land, we need a permit but we can only get that with authorisation from a customer.

“We understand when residents see a leak not being fixed it can be incredibly frustrating but it is important to remember we fix 1,000 leaks a week and we exceed our leak reduction targets.”

MPH confirmed it was not made aware of the leak until Wednesday morning and the repairs team had been notified.

UPDATE (Thursday 9am): Merton Priory Homes said they sent their repairs team to the site yesterday to start work and will be at the site today to investigate the leak.

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