£22m fine for South East Water over repeated supply failures

South East Water is to be fined £22m for repeated supply failures, watchdog Ofwat has said.

The fine relates to the water company's supply interruptions in Kent and Sussex between 2020 and 2023, which affected more than 286,000 people. It is also under investigation for outages over the last four months.

Ofwat said the fine "reflects the severity of the issues". A consultation is open to the public and shareholders until 13 April, before the watchdog confirms its final decision.

Chris Walters, interim CEO at 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.

"This investigation gets to the heart of the company's supply resilience problems. We want to see South East Water take more responsibility and get on with fixing things for its customers."

A spokesperson for South East Water said the company sought an injunction, and that it is "now considering Ofwat's draft decision and will respond via the appropriate channels, ahead of its final decision".

SEW 'failed' to learn from Beast from the East

In a statement, Ofwat said an investigation found that South East Water "failed to plan sufficiently, learn from incidents and conduct root cause analysis to maintain resilience within its water supply system, and was therefore unable to cope during periods of high demand or extreme weather".

It added that the company "failed to maintain key infrastructure such as service reservoirs, boreholes and major pipes" which the watchdog said "left the system more likely to fail during prolonged dry periods or freeze thaw events".

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"As a result of the disruptions, customers had no tap water, were unable to shower or bathe, and unable to flush their toilets, which caused immense stress and anxiety," Ofwat said.

"Ofwat's investigation found that the company's response was slow and disorganised, with shortages of bottled water and not enough tankers or support for vulnerable customers.

"It also failed to learn lessons from previous incidents, including the Beast from the East in 2018."

A report from Ofwat at the time of the snowstorm found households and businesses were badly let down by some water firms.

More than 200,000 customers in England and Wales were left without supplies for more than four hours, while over 60,000 customers did not have a water supply for more than 12 hours.

Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said water supply disruptions "are wholly unacceptable".

"It is entirely right Ofwat is holding South East Water to account... reliable water supplies are not optional. Water companies must prioritise their customers, and deliver the services people deserve."

Mike Keil, chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water (CCW), said: "People across Kent and Sussex will rightly want to know whether this fine will make any difference to the reliability of the services they receive from the company.

"Customers are fed up of living with the worry and uncertainty of not knowing whether their taps will run dry every time there is a change in the weather."

Investigation into 2025 outages ongoing

It comes amid an ongoing Ofwat investigation into the water firm after repeated outages between November and January left tens of thousands of households and businesses across Kent and Sussex without drinking water.

Sky News City editor Mark Kleinman also reported last month that a community action group in Tunbridge Wells demanded the "immediate" sacking of South East Water's chief executive after weeks of outages.

Read more:
The group fighting back amid Kent's 'water limbo'

In May last year, Thames Water was fined a record £122.7m for breaches of its rules over sewage discharges and dividend payments.

(c) Sky News 2026: £22m fine for South East Water over repeated supply failures