South East Water statement on finalised Ofwat undertakings package

In response to media enquiries regarding the conclusion of Ofwat’s investigation into historical supply failures (2020–2023) and the transition from a £22m fine to a £30.5m redress package, a spokesperson for South East Water said:

"We are incredibly sorry for the historical supply disruptions that affected our customers across Kent and Sussex. We know this caused significant disruption and anxiety, and we accept the failures identified by Ofwat. It is not the standard of service our customers deserve.

Our priority has been to ensure that the resolution of this investigation directly benefits those who suffered the most. By working in collaboration with Ofwat, we have agreed to a £30.5 million redress package, which will be wholly funded by South East Water’s shareholders. Choosing this route over a standard fine means these significant funds will directly benefit those customers who were impacted, some of them on multiple occasions.

This package places customer redress at its heart. Through the package, the company’s shareholders will fund:

• £13m to undertake further investment following an independent root and branch review of the company’s resilience.
• £5m to speed up the smart metering programme for businesses.
• £5m to help households collect rainwater and reduce demand on the mains supply through the provision of free water butts.
• £5m to install on-site storage tanks and smart meters in high-usage businesses to help manage the network better at peak times.
• £1m to make sure critical settings don't run out of water if there is a future outage.
• £1.5m to create a community relief fund to give back to communities that suffered the worst water supply failures.

We are fully committed to learning from the past, transforming our business and delivering our largest-ever investment programme through our Price Review 24 (PR24) business plan. We are focused on sustainably expanding our network resilience and drinking water storage capacity so that we can prevent these failures from happening again."