How do water supply companies reduce the pressure?

I would hope the leak is on the "in" side, otherwise the householder is paying for the privilege.

Maybe its changed but the dividing line was the curtilage, at least when I had a meter installed. The check pointer showed a leak. Digging down and crushed ice and salt around the pipe at the curtilage mark, showed it was their pidgeon. A piece of flint had slightly punctured the pipe under the pavement after the meter and before curtilage, presumably due to all those vehicles using pavements as roads. Even more so with those armies of supermarket and parcel vans driving over pavements.

This happens in my immediate area literally every other day. A friend of mine spoke to the bods fixing one near him. They said that SE Water had bought a batch of duff meters 10 years ago, and they all now failing, (fortunately the leak that develops is on the inlet and not outlet side)

This is in the part of SE Water that used to be Mid Wessex Water (North Hampshire/Wokingham)

I thought I read that when Grenfell Tower turned into a giant firework, London Fire Brigade had to ask Thames water to increase the pressure back to daytime levels.

Apparently they reduce it at night to reduce losses through all the leaks.

We got tons of bananas on the beaches at Bognor and Selsey. The containers arrived a few days later.

Not sure if the ship carrying them sank or just lost them in that recent storm.