Overview
- Ofwat announced the £30.5 million redress package on Tuesday to conclude three investigations into repeated supply failures that left hundreds of thousands without water.
- The regulator found South East Water failed to maintain pipes, plan for extreme weather and communicate during outages, causing long delays for bottled water, school closures and hardship for vulnerable customers.
- The package is paid for by shareholders not customers and earmarks roughly £13 million for a company turnaround and infrastructure work plus funds for on-site storage, smart meters, free water butts and community support.
- Ofwat will appoint an independent monitor, paid for by South East Water separately from the £30.5 million, to review and publicly report on the firm’s required performance improvement plan.
- The enforcement follows a May Moody’s downgrade that breached licence rules and adds fresh scrutiny of the company’s governance and finances as it moves to rebuild customer confidence.