Water Boss Admits "Failure" Over Winter Outages
During a grilling by MPs from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (Efra), Mr Train stated it was "absolutely untenable for customers to be without water." This admission follows widespread disruption, affecting approximately 24,000 properties in November and December, and a further 30,000 just weeks later. Businesses reported significant financial losses, and one resident described a January outage as "Armageddon."
Company Response and Criticism
South East Water (SEW) has launched a £600,000 compensation fund for affected businesses, though committee chair Alistair Carmichael deemed this amount inadequate. Calls for SEW chief executive David Hinton to resign have been rebuffed by the board, though Mr Hinton has surrendered his bonus for the current year. Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin criticised the leadership's "pathetic performance" before the committee, arguing that the board is also failing if they back Mr Hinton.
Dr Mike Keil, CEO at the Consumer Council for Water, highlighted the "lasting damage and lasting consequences" of the outages, with a survey revealing 54% of SEW customers now store bottled water. Ofwat, the regulator, has proposed a £22m fine against SEW for disruptions between 2020 and 2023, and is investigating potential licence breaches. SEW attributed some issues to climate change, stating its "speed and severity" has outstripped predictions.
