Ofwat has fined South East Water £22.5m for repeated supply failures in Kent and Sussex between 2020 and 2023 affecting more than 280,000 people.
While the root cause of the water shortages was extreme weather, the water regulator for England and Wales concluded that they were “partly attributable to and/or exacerbated by failures by South East Water itself to develop and maintain an efficient water supply system”.
This has affected 286,645 customers since 2020, and some customers have been affected repeatedly, Ofwat said in its proposed enforcement order.
In January, Ofwat launched a separate investigation into a series of outages before Christmas that left tens of thousands of residents in Kent and Sussex without water, many of them in Tunbridge Wells.
Chris Walters, acting chief executive of Ofwat, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The investigation reveals that South East Water did not take sufficient steps to plan and learn from previous events. For example, the big freeze we had in 2018.
“We all remember the ‘beast from the east’ and it didn’t proactively maintain its network. All the things you need to do to avoid a lack of supply resilience, for example tank transport and storage tanks.“
Walters said the fine would be paid by the company and “will not appear on customers’ bills.”
A spokesperson for South East Water said: “We recently applied for a judicial review of a draft Ofwat decision and sought an injunction. Following a hearing, the court did not grant the interim injunction. We respect the court’s decision on this.
“We are now considering Ofwat’s draft decision and will respond through the appropriate channels, ahead of its final decision.”
Asked why the process took three years, Walters said investigations took time and said supply disruptions to customers were “a totemic issue” and it was important to get things right.
He added that South East Water “needs to step up and take greater responsibility for the problem”.”.
The latest penalty comes a day after another supplier, South West Water, admitted supplying water unfit for human consumption after a parasite outbreak in Devon sickened almost 150 people.
Last May, Thames Water was fined a record £104m by Ofwat for environmental breaches relating to wastewater discharges, after failing to effectively operate and manage its wastewater treatment works and networks.
