‘How can they expect us to pay more?’: Anger as crisis-hit Tunbridge Wells water agency boss says increased payments wanted to cease shortages | EUROtoday

A boss of crisis-hit South East Water (SEW), which has been rocked by provide issues impactingthousands of individuals throughout Kent and Sussex, has mentioned increased payments are wanted to construct up the water firm’s resilience.

SEW has claimed the most recent provide failure was attributable to burst pipes and energy cuts attributable to Storm Goretti – however the firm has confronted anger from the general public and politicians alike, who’ve mentioned the service is less than scratch.

Some 30,000 houses have been left with out water in locations corresponding to Tonbridge, Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells, with many residents having to hunt provides from bottle assortment factors arrange throughout the impacted areas.

Now, as water regulator Ofwat proceed an investigation into the corporate, its chairman, Chris Train, has instructed MPs that more cash is required to pay for prevention measures to cease outages.

Last yr, the water firm put up payments by 20 per cent from the earlier yr, which means the typical family invoice is £294. It can be one among 5 corporations hoping to lift payments above a determine set by the reguator for the following 5 years.

In his letter to the surroundings choose committee, Mr Train, mentioned: “We proposed what we considered were necessary and appropriate delivery plans to secure resilience to Ofwat through the price review process.

“Ofwat’s decision to, among other things, refuse to fully fund key resilience schemes meant that, as a board we were left with no option but to take the difficult decision to appeal Ofwat’s determination to the Competition and Markets Authority in March 2025.”

He mentioned he anticipated the result of CMA’s determination, which provisionally allowed a rise on payments by an additional 4 per cent on prime of the beforehand granted 24 per cent, to be finalised within the coming weeks.

Mr Train mentioned that the corporate, in contrast to different water corporations throughout the nation, confronted sooner and harsher impacts of local weather change. He additionally mentioned it was going through an elevated demand for water, which required “very significant additional infrastructure”.

However, on Wednesday, ideas of additional value hikes have been met by anger in cities and villages impacted, the place colleges and companies have been pressured to shut, with many claiming the corporate had did not hold them knowledgeable on the state of affairs.

The newest scarcity additionally adopted disruption earlier than Christmas, when greater than 20,000 properties have been left with out water.

Paddy McGinley, who lives within the Ulcombe, close to Maidstone, mentioned he and different villagers have been having to purchase and take bottled water to susceptible members of his group in the course of the scarcity.

“We’re doing their job for them,” he instructed The Independent. “How can they expect us to pay more. They are a water company, it’s their job to supply water, they need to sort this out themselves, not make every excuse under the sun and ask us to pay more.”

Mr McGinley mentioned he was urging villagers to take away any unused credit score of their water accounts in protest over the corporate’s efficiency.

Meanwhile, Alastair Carmichael, the chairman of the surroundings choose committee instructed The Telegraph that Mr Train’s letter confirmed he “fails to show a proper grasp on the seriousness of the situation”.

He added: “We shall want to have a further evidence session to get to the bottom of the multiple problems of South East Water. Their customers deserve answers and to know that they have access to safe and reliable water. The company will not be allowed to avoid that.”

On Monday, SEW’s chief govt David Hinton was grilled by MPs by Mr Carmichael and different members of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee. On the identical day, throughout an pressing query within the Commons, a number of MPs known as for the federal government to take away Mr Hinton from his publish.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately mentioned: “It is not for the first time, the chief executive of South East Water has shown us he is not up to the job. Can I urge the honourable lady to use any power she has to move him on?”

South East Water has repeatedly apologised for the water shortages. In a press release on its web site on Wednesday, it mentioned: “We’re extremely sorry to all customers who currently have no water or low pressure.

“We know how tough it is to be without water and this is not the level of service we want to provide. We are using every available resource to water supplies; from fixing leaks to rerouting water around our network.”

The water firm mentioned prospects have been persevering with to have issues with provide in Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge.