A water company has apologised to customers experiencing difficulties in contacting it by telephone.

Southern Water said it has had "teething trouble" with its £20 million billing system which was introduced at its call centre in Worthing in February.

The firm, which provides water and wastewater treatment to about two million customers in Sussex, Kent and Hampshire, said many had failed to get through to its call centre and others did not receive new payment cards.

A radio advert started yesterday apologising to customers, coinciding with a full-page advert in The Argus under the headline "We're Sorry".

The advert went on: "We know you may be experiencing difficulties in getting through to us on the telephone.

"We are doing everything we can to resolve this as quickly as possible.

"The problems have been caused because of teething trouble with our new £20million billing system, which will ultimately vastly improve our service to you.

"We thank you for your patience."

Director of customer services Andy Watson said: "We are sorry for the issues we are causing our customers and thank them for their patience as we put the problems right.

"Ultimately, our new system will help deliver major improvements to raise our standards of customer service and I would reassure everyone that once the system is bedded in they will see a vastly improved level of service."

He added that more than 100 staff had been hired to bring the number of people dealing with customer service inquiries to more than double that of 18 months ago.

The company has also upgraded its website, and all customers have now received their new payment cards.

The Argus revealed today that MPs demanded water companies in Sussex should be fined millions of pounds if they fail to fix their leaky pipes.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said water suppliers should face "the maximum financial penalties" if they repeatedly missed their annual leakage targets.

Southern Water missed its leakage target by a small margin last year. The company was ordered to reduce its losses to 92 million litres per day by the end of March 2006. It missed this by 0.75 million litres per day.

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