Nigel Farage has called for the resignation of the chief executive of South East Water as 23,000 homes enter their fifth day of having no water supply. The crisis, affecting tens of thousands of households across Kent and Sussex, has sparked widespread frustration and demands for accountability.
David Hinton, who earns an annual salary of £400,000, remains at the helm despite the ongoing water outage. He has issued an apology, expressing that he “feels customers’ pain,” yet this has done little to appease those affected. The disruption, which began on Saturday, has left many residents with either no running water or severely limited access.
The impact has been significant, forcing the closure of schools and nurseries, disrupting businesses, and leaving families to rely on emergency water distribution points. Areas such as East Grinstead, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Ashford, and Sevenoaks are among those still coping without a steady water supply.
In response to the crisis, regulator Ofwat has launched an investigation and is contemplating “further action.” The situation has also drawn criticism from various MPs and local councillors, who have joined the chorus calling for Mr. Hinton’s resignation. They point to the substantial bonus of £115,000 he received last year as further reason for accountability.
Towns still facing dry taps include East Grinstead, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Ashford, and Seven Oaks.
Regulator Ofwat is actively investigating and considering ‘further action’ – while several MPs and councillors have said Mr Hinton, who bagged an additional £115,000 bonus last year, must go.
Mr Farage said yesterday: ‘Dave Hinton has presided over a culture of failure at South East Water for too long.
‘It’s time he took responsibility and resigned.’
David Hinton, the chief executive of South East Water, is facing growing calls to resign
South East Water staff hand out bottled water at a water station in Maidstone
Nigel Farage led calls for the South East Water boss, who received a six-figure bonus last year, to step down
He threw his support behind a letter from Kent County Council, held by his party Reform UK, that slammed the ‘systematic and repeated failures’ Mr Hinton has overseen.
Council leader Linden Kemkaran said: ‘Kent has suffered one too many water outages and I’m afraid that heads must roll,’ adding that a major incident had been declared.
She said that finding a permanent solution to the problems ‘must begin with accountability at the highest level and a significant change in approach and to the leadership’.
Six MPs from across the political spectrum co-signed a letter to Ofwat insisting South East Water (SEW) must not be allowed to ‘get away’ with its handling of the crisis.
Mr Hinton has also dodged several media interviews, with the Today programme repeatedly calling him out for ignoring their requests and MPs quizzing him this month about not speaking to the media during December’s outage.
In Kent, some locals have resorted to collecting rainwater in buckets and bins in order to flush their toilets – and described the situation as ‘apocalyptic’.
Vikki Chalk told the BBC: ‘It dawned on me I could line up the few buckets I had to start gathering more for flushing! My heart goes out to large families with young kids; it must be impossible.’
Others have vowed to stop paying their water bills.
Traffic signs at a water collection point in East Grinstead
Bottled water is loaded into a car at an emergency water distribution point in Tunbridge Wells
A woman collects bottled water from an emergency water distribution point on January 12 in East Grinstead
Several schools have been forced to close again, with one headteacher describing the state of affairs as ‘very Covid’.
Lynsey Sanchez Daviu is head of Kingswood Primary School, near Maidstone, which was closed again today.
She told the BBC R4 Today programme this morning: ‘We didn’t have any communication from South East Water until last night. We’re back to online learning; it’s very Covid.’
Kingswood was closed on Monday and then reopened on Tuesday, only to send all the pupils home when the water cut out again around lunchtime.
The Abergavenny Arms pub in Frant says it fears it will ‘go bust’ if the water issues continue, with a spokesperson adding: ‘It’s killing us small businesses’.
The pub said it had been without water since Sunday morning and had been forced to throw away about £500 worth of food.
SEW has blamed the chaos on the impacts of Storm Goretti as well as a power cut at one of its pumps.
The supplier said its teams are working around the clock to carry out repairs and has apologised.
A bottled water distribution point in East Grinstead on Monday
A worker hands over bottled water at a water station in East Grinstead, after bad weather was blamed for more water outages in Kent and parts of Sussex
Customers in Sussex should see water suppliers running again today, it said, but no firm deadline was given for Tunbridge Wells.
In an ‘unprecedented move’, SEW bosses including Mr Hinton will be hauled back to Parliament to answer further questions about outages in the run-up to Christmas.
They appeared before the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee earlier this month when Mr Hinton said the water company was ‘absolutely dedicated’ to fixing the network’s resilience problems and apologised.
The Drinking Water Inspectorate has launched an investigation into the company.
Incident manager Matthew Dean yesterday apologised and pointed to the recent cold weather.
He explained it had caused a spate of leaks and bursts across the area – meaning drinking water and storage tanks were running low.
He said: ‘Water supplies to Loose in Maidstone, Blean near Canterbury, Headcorn, West Kingsdown, and parts of Tunbridge Wells have been restored.
Mr Dean added: ‘Our customer care team is delivering bottled water to the customers on our priority services register who are most in need.
‘We are also supporting hospitals with tankers and providing bottled water for care homes, schools, medical care providers and to support livestock.’
An Ofwat spokesperson said on Tuesday: ‘We are concerned that residents in Kent and Sussex are without water again, and are working closely with the Drinking Water Inspectorate, which is the lead regulator for this latest supply interruption, to ensure that regulation and enforcement is aligned.
‘Ofwat already has an active investigation into South East Water related to its supply resilience, and we have met with the company to discuss these latest incidents as part of that investigation.
‘We will review all of the evidence before taking a decision on what further action may be required into whether the company has met its legal obligations set out in its licence relating to customer care, including with further potential enforcement action.’
South East Water has been approached for further details and comment.
