Senior executives from South East Water have been summoned to face MPs for a second time, as the company grapples with a fresh wave of supply failures affecting thousands of customers across Kent and Sussex.
MPs Demand Answers Over Christmas Crisis
The Parliamentary Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee has recalled company bosses David Hinton, chief executive, and Chris Train, chair. This follows an outage before Christmas that left 24,000 properties in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, without water for days due to a water quality issue at the Pembury Water Treatment Works.
Committee chair Alistair Carmichael stated he and his colleagues remain “deeply sceptical” about the company's explanation of events. The recall was triggered after Mr Train wrote to MPs disputing evidence provided by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) regarding the December incident.
Mr Carmichael was sharply critical of the firm's announcement of a further independent review, questioning its true independence as it is to be conducted by a board member supported by company staff. He accused South East Water of attempting to “buy time” and “hunker down until this storm blows over.”
New Outages Compound Customer Misery
The renewed parliamentary scrutiny comes as 25,000 properties in Kent and Sussex are suffering fresh supply failures, many entering a fourth day without water. The latest outages began during the night of Friday 9 to Saturday 10 January 2026.
South East Water has attributed these new problems to Storm Goretti, which it says caused a surge in burst pipes and power cuts, leading to critically low storage tank levels. Matthew Dean, the company's incident manager, confirmed teams are “working around the clock” to fix the leaks.
While supplies were restored on Tuesday 13 January to several areas including Loose in Maidstone and parts of Tunbridge Wells, 16,500 properties in East Grinstead, West Sussex, were still awaiting restoration. Bottled water stations remain operational in multiple locations.
Regulatory Scrutiny and Customer Fallout
The water regulator, Ofwat, has voiced its “concern” over the repeated failures. A spokesperson confirmed that an active investigation into South East Water's supply resilience is already underway and that the regulator will “review all the evidence” to determine if the company has met its legal obligations on customer care.
The company's customer care team is prioritising deliveries to vulnerable customers on its priority services register, while also supporting local hospitals, care homes, and schools with tankers and bottled water.
This latest hearing will see MPs seek further evidence from both the DWI and South East Water's leadership, with the committee determined not to allow the company to “mark their own homework.” The ongoing crises have placed the firm's operational resilience and accountability under intense and unresolved scrutiny.
