Jaguar Land Rover has agreed to stop production at two of its UK plants in order to ease pressure on water supply in the Midlands.

The Solihull plant was in the process of closing on Monday evening, while the Castle Bromwich plant will close from Tuesday morning.

A spokeswoman said they would be "closely monitoring" the situation but could not say when either would reopen.

Officials from Severn Trent outside JLR in Solihull

At any one time the Solihull site has 10,000 employees while the Castle Bromwich site has up to 3,000 people working there.

Staff at Jaguar Land Rover were urged not to attend their shift at the Solihull plant today.

The Midlands car giant informed staff members that they should stay at home amid a water supply outage across the region.

The bad weather has caused problems with mains water supply to homes across the UK and Ireland.

Jaguar Land Rover
Jaguar Land Rover

A thaw in temperatures has caused a number of burst pipes and leaks, leaving scores of households without any water.

A spokeswoman for Severn Trent said: "Due to the recent thaw we've experienced, our teams are dealing with a huge number of burst pipes across our region which is putting pressure on our network.

"As well as bringing in extra teams and tankers, and ramping up production at our treatment works so we can continue to keep schools, hospitals, homes and vulnerable customers on supply, we've worked closely with Jaguar Land Rover which has agreed to stop production to help us target our supply.

"We'd like to thank them for their support as we look to get everything back to normal for our customers."

The water firm apologised to customers and thanked them for their patience.

In an email sent to staff, seen by Birmingham Live, JLR said: "Due to a series of water bursts on the Severn Trent network, the water is being switched off across our Solihull plant and across the Midlands.

"As a result, production will be temporarily affected.

"Please DO NOT attend shift until you receive another email."

Staff members were told JLR's local areas would brief workers on an action plan.

Workers have been told to keep in touch with supervisors.

Staff members already at the plant in Solihull were sent home.

"We would appreciate your support in safely and efficently exiting the site," a notice placed up at the plant read.

Severn Trent apologised to customers in the Rugby, Birmingham and North Nottingham areas who had no supply.

The company said it has been dealing with "an unprecedented number of leaks".

The firm said Monday morning: "Our teams have been working hard through the night and we're happy to say that customers in both Birmingham and North Nottingham now have water supplies back on.

"Thanks so much for your patience - we know how hard it is to have no water."

Earlier it had said: "We're happy to say that all water supplies should now be back on in the Rugby and Southam areas.

"We're so sorry for the inconvenience - thanks for your patience and thanks for bearing with us."

But why do burst pipes happen?

The firm told customers: "The rapid thaw has seen our teams called out to an unprecedented number of burst pipes.

"To put that into perspective, we’ve had an increase in burst pipe alarms of nearly 4000 per cent.

"When water freezes within a pipe it expands, putting more pressure on it and causing it to split or the joints to pull apart.

"When the temperature starts to increase again, the water will start to leak out.

"This has put pressure on our network and meant small pockets of it experienced low pressure or periodic interruptions to supply during Sunday evening.

"Our teams have worked tirelessly throughout the night to fix many of the bursts, and as a result we have managed to restore supplies to everyone who was impacted.

"Overnight there have been a further series of bursts though, and so as we enter peak demand this morning, there may still be poor pressure or intermittent supplies in pockets again as we fix these.

"We have teams deployed to deal with these and can reassure customers that we are doing everything we can to restore supplies as soon as possible.

"We would like to offer a huge apology to these customers for any disruption to their Monday mornings.

"We know just how hard it is to be without water and we hugely appreciate everyone’s patience as our teams work round the clock to mend the bursts and reduce any impact to our customers."