Overview
- David Hinton, who leads South East Water, will leave his role, which the company confirmed Friday, and he will stay through the summer to allow an orderly handover while a successor is found.
- The move follows last week’s exit of chair Chris Train after Parliament’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee said it had no confidence in the firm’s leaders, with Lisa Clement now serving as interim chair.
- Repeated supply failures between November and January cut water to about 24,000 properties before Christmas and up to 30,000 more in later incidents, shutting schools and care homes and leaving some businesses facing losses estimated at £10–£20 million.
- MPs blamed poor maintenance, weak risk monitoring, a slow and disorganised response, scant bottled-water and tanker support, and patchy communication that left vulnerable customers without help.
- Facing an Ofwat plan announced in March to fine the company about £22 million for earlier service failures, South East Water has apologised and says it will double network investment over five years and speed up engineering work as part of a wider transformation plan.