𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Ofwat has said it plans to fine South East Water £22 million over water supply failures between 2020 and 2023 impacting more than 286,000 people.

The water regulator said it was consulting over the fine after homes in Kent and Sussex were hit by multiple supply interruptions over the years.

South East Water “lacked ownership” for fixing the root cause of supply failures and did not maintain important infrastructure, the watchdog said.

It said its investigations found that the water company “failed to maintain supply-system resilience” to minimise incidents occurring and failed to plan to make sure it had sufficient headroom to deal with periods of high demand.

Chris Walters, interim chief executive of Ofwat, said: “South East Water’s significant failings caused major disruption and had a huge impact on thousands of its customers.

“Not only did the company fail in its duty to provide a water supply to meet the demands of its customers, but it also fell short when it came to providing support for customers who lost their supply.

“They must do better.”