South East Water to pay £30.5m over failures
Summary
South East Water must pay £30.5 million after failures caused water supply problems for hundreds of thousands of homes in Kent and Sussex. The company’s shareholders will cover the cost, not the customers, and the payment includes support to help customers affected by the disruptions.Key Facts
- The water supply interruptions affected over 286,000 people between 2020 and 2023.
- More recent supply issues occurred between November 2025 and January 2026, leaving up to 70,000 homes without water.
- Customers could not use tap water, shower, or flush toilets during these outages.
- Schools closed and some people had to miss work due to childcare problems caused by the water cuts.
- Ofwat, the water regulator, said the company failed to communicate properly and did not provide enough bottled water during the outages.
- The £30.5 million payment will fund free water butts, early smart water meters for businesses, and on-site storage to manage high demand.
- An independent monitor will be hired to check South East Water’s improvement plans, with the company paying for this separately.
- South East Water accepted the failures and apologized for the disruptions and the inconvenience caused.
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