South East Water apologises for 'substandard' service to Wealden customers
Water outages hit thousands of homes in both December and June
South East Water has apologised for providing a ‘substandard’ service to its customers in Wealden.
The apology came at a meeting of Wealden District Council’s overview and scrutiny committee on Monday (September 11), which saw councillors question representatives of the water company about its recent performance.
Much of the discussion focussed on the most recent mass outages, which hit thousands of South East Water customers in both December and June.
At the opening of the meeting, the company’s chief executive David Hinton said: “I guess I just need to take a couple of seconds on an apology really about a service that over the last few years, from our view certainly, has been substandard.
“We fully understand the impact on customers and stakeholder groups. We’ve got quite a lot on hand … but I think it’s important to give you a bit of context.”
Mr Hinton went on to say the December incident had been caused by an ‘extreme’ freeze-thaw event leading to a higher than usual number of bursts across the company’s system.
The June outages were also weather related, he said, with a period of very hot weather and low rainfall coupled with ‘exceptional demand’. Mr Hinton said this high demand was unusual and been even higher than during the recent period of hotter weather.
This explanation seemed to ring hollow with some committee members who questioned whether the events could have been avoided had the company invested more in its infrastructure.
In response, representatives for South East Water spoke about the company’s investment plans for resilience and emergency response. This included the purchase of new water tankers to be used in the event of future outages, they said.
The representatives said the company is seeking around £5m of public money to carry out this work, but will also be seeking to raise private capital as well.
This saw concerns raised by several councillors, including Cllr Jane Clark (Lib Dem, Crowborough Central) who said the company had been “caught napping regarding climate change”.
A similar argument was made by Cllr Daniel Manvell (Lab, Uckfield North), who said: “If you’ve been aware for four years that you’ve been having these high-intensity weather that cause problems, why haven’t you been diverting money from dividends — £40m … over the last four years — into that £5m you are requesting now?”
Mr Hinton disputed the accuracy of Cllr Manvell’s claim, saying the company had not paid out money to its shareholders since 2020 and did not expect to until at least 2025. He did acknowledge that dividends had been paid out, but said this was repayment of outstanding loans.
Councillors also took the opportunity to criticise the company’s response to the June water outages, taking particular issue with the company declining help from Wealden District Council
Conservative councillor Michael Lunn, who represents Hadlow Down and Rotherfield, communities which have been repeatedly hit by the outages, was particularly critical.
He said: “On the ground it was chaos. There were thousands of residents, farmers, who were without water for over seven days and yet you still refused the support of this council, who could have manned water stations.
“The fire brigade could have got water out to farmers and you still didn’t declare an emergency. Can you explain that to our residents please?”
In response, representatives said the company had treated the outage as an emergency, but, unlike the December outage, could not declare a ‘major incident’ as the number of households affected did not go beyond the required threshold.
The only difference in their response, the representatives said, would have been a request for help from central government.
They added that, in some cases, the issue in this area hadn’t been available manpower but other logistical challenges, such as availability of equipment and the ability of farmers to store water on their properties.
The representatives said the company has since delivered water tanks to some properties and added that its investment plans included the purchase of suitable equipment, such as towable bowsers.
Another concern for councillors was the impact of additional housing on water demand. The council has already raised its concerns in this area, having unanimously called for lower housing targets at an extraordinary meeting in June.
Responding to this, Mr Hinton reiterated that the company is unable to refuse connections to its network, but does build expected housing growth into its infrastructure investment plans.
He added that the company would welcome becoming a statutory consultee in planning applications, saying new developments would need to be more water efficient in future.