Ofwat opens investigation into South East Water amid prolonged outages

Ofwat, the UK’s water industry regulator, has formally opened an investigation into South East Water after repeated supply interruptions left thousands of households and businesses across Kent and Sussex without drinking water. The move follows a series of outages dating back to November, including extended problems over the winter and recent disruptions linked to severe weather conditions.

The regulator said its inquiry will consider whether South East Water has “complied with its obligation to provide high standards of customer service and support for its customers.” It is the first investigation Ofwat has launched under the customer-focused licence condition, which is intended to ensure companies adequately support customers during service failures.

Lynn Parker, Ofwat’s senior director for enforcement, said: “The last six weeks have been miserable for businesses and households across Kent and Sussex with repeated supply problems. We know that this has had a huge impact on all parts of daily life and hurt businesses, particularly in the run-up to the festive period. That is why we need to investigate and to determine whether the company has breached its licence condition.”

Thousands of properties in the affected areas have experienced intermittent or no water supply

Thousands of properties in the affected areas have experienced intermittent or no water supply, with some outages linked to freeze–thaw events after cold weather and damage from Storm Goretti. In recent days, around 8,500 addresses were reported to remain without water.

South East Water has acknowledged the impact of the service failures and said it is “very sorry to all our customers who have been and continue to be affected.” A spokesperson added that the company will “fully cooperate with any investigation by our regulators and provide any information required.”

Ofwat already has an ongoing investigation into South East Water’s overall supply resilience, examining whether the company has maintained adequate systems and planning to deliver reliable water supplies. The new inquiry focuses specifically on customer service and support during incidents.

The regulator has the power to impose fines of up to 10% of a company’s turnover if a breach of licence conditions is found, but opening an investigation does not imply a conclusion about whether any breach has occurred.

Political and public pressure has grown amid the outages, with calls from government figures for a review of the company’s licence and scrutiny of its performance.