The chief executive of South East Water has apologised for recent outages affecting Sussex and Kent.
David Hinton was speaking to MPs at a Select Committee today, where he acknowledged the disruption caused in December and January.
He said the company had fallen short of expectations.
Hinton also confirmed he will not accept a bonus for the 2025 to 26 financial year.
David Hinton, South East Water CEO, said: “We apologise unreservedly to all our customers for the unacceptable water outages experienced in December and January. We recognise the serious impact this has had on our customers and know that we fell short of what is expected of us.
“In recognition of this, I have made the decision not to accept any bonus for the 2025/2026 year.
“We are taking direct action to change the way supply interruptions are managed through a programme of engineering works and accelerated operational changes. We started a six-month programme of works that will reduce the risk of network outages, and the operational changes we are implementing will improve customer experience in the event that future outages occur.
“Our work to date includes improvements to water treatment works, upgrades to pipelines and increased spare stock levels and will deliver additional capacity and water quality protection to over 24,000 households across Pembury and Tunbridge Wells.
“We are focused on delivering our long-term business plan, the most ambitious we have ever produced, designed to improve operational resilience while keeping customer bills affordable.
“Customers can be assured that we are working at pace to complete our full programme of works and will be keeping them updated on our progress.”
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