Troubled South East Water has been slapped with a £30.5 million enforcement package after years of supply failures left hundreds of thousands of customers without running water, forcing schools to close and leaving families unable to wash, cook or even flush their toilets.
Water regulator Ofwat said the package concludes three separate investigations into the supplier, following repeated outages across Kent and Sussex that exposed serious failings in the company’s infrastructure and customer response.
The biggest element is a previously proposed £22 million penalty for water supply failures between 2020 and 2023, which affected more than 286,000 households.
A second investigation was launched after further major disruptions between November and January, when up to 70,000 homes in Tunbridge Wells and across Kent and Sussex were left without water for prolonged periods.
The regulator also opened a third investigation after credit ratings agency Moody’s downgraded South East Water in May, placing the company in breach of its licence conditions.
Ofwat said the company’s failures caused “real disruption and hardship” for customers over a number of years.
During the winter outages, thousands of households were left without access to drinking water, showers or functioning toilets.
Schools were forced to close, while some parents had to miss work because childcare arrangements collapsed. Other customers struggled to manage medical conditions without a reliable water supply.
The watchdog also criticised South East Water for failing to communicate effectively with customers during the crisis.
It found the company did not provide clear and accurate information quickly enough and failed to distribute adequate supplies of bottled water to affected households.
Helen Campbell, Ofwat’s Executive Director of Delivery, said: “South East Water must now focus on what matters most – its customers.
“These failures have caused real disruption and hardship for residents and businesses across many years, and supply interruptions of this scale have happened far too often.
“This package is the first step towards full accountability and to improving overall performance.”
As part of the enforcement action, Ofwat will appoint an independent monitor to oversee South East Water’s recovery plan and wider turnaround programme.
The company will be required to fund the monitor separately from the £30.5 million package.
Crucially, Ofwat stressed the costs will be paid by South East Water’s shareholders, not customers, meaning household bills will not fund the penalties.
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