Following a public meeting on Monday, Fuller, Conservative MP for North Bedfordshire, said: “It’s a shock to me that people can bore so deep into a garden and no one needs to know about it.

“This is called ‘permitted development’, so I will put some questions to ministers, for example ‘is there a gap in the regulations here?'”

He added: “I’ve been told this type of incident hasn’t occurred before so it’s quite rare, but when it does happen now we really need to look at the regulations to see if they’re up to date and what people can expect to happen.

“We will see a lot more of this drilling into ground source heat pumps, especially as the new government is keen to move forward with these renewable sources, so it is important that regulations keep pace with the experiences we have.”