MPs call on South East Water bosses to quit in scathing report

MPs from a key committee have declared they have no confidence in South East Water's (SEW) leadership to turn the company around after a litany of failures. 

The firm was described as "devoid of proper leadership" and "riddled with cultural problems" in a new report from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee.

Alistair Carmichael, the chair of the cross-party committee, said: "Someone in this company needs to take a grip, be accountable for its failings and put them right."

The rebuke comes after a major water outage in late 2025, which left tens of thousands of customers in Tunbridge Wells without drinking water for two weeks.

The report criticises SEW's boss, David Hinton, and calls for a reset of the company's attitudes – but argues that "change at this scale requires SEW's leadership to change".

Ofwat, the water regulator in England and Wales, is already consulting on issuing a fine of up to 8% of SEW's annual turnover (£22.46m) due to significant supply failures and poor customer service between 2020 and 2023.

The committee has also called on shareholders in SEW – Utilities Trust of Australia, NatWest Group Pension Fund and Desjardins Group and associated holding companies – to hold the company to account.

Failure to carry out routine cleaning and water tests

A lack of water jar testing – to ensure water quality – by SEW at its Pembury Treatment Works, where various failures led to the two-week outage in Tunbridge Wells, was highlighted by the report.

Despite having been advised by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) to carry out the tests, it failed to do so.

This meant the water company was "flying blind" at the time of last year's water outage.

Alongside this, the DWI said that routine maintenance and cleaning were not undertaken at Pembury before the Tunbridge Wells incident.

The committee argues that insufficient resourcing and planning to tackle these problems have been implemented since 2019, despite being costed in many cases.

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The report is most scathing in its assessment of SEW's leadership team, saying it has a "clear pattern" of blaming factors outside of their control "despite clear evidence to the contrary".

"There is also a clear culture of obfuscating responsibility that is seriously inhibiting their ability to analyse problems and learn lessons," it adds.

SEW has been contacted for comment.

(c) Sky News 2026: MPs call on South East Water bosses to quit in scathing report