Businesses hit by water failure to get extra help

South East Water (SEW) says it is creating an additional, separate compensation scheme for businesses in Kent and East Sussex affected by a supply failure for six days before Christmas.

About 24,000 properties in and around Tunbridge Wells, had no or low pressure tap water from 29 November until supply was mostly restored on 4 December.

With residents and businesses told to boil the restored tap water for the next nine days, calls were made for SEW chief executive David Hinton to resign.

While customers have been compensated through the Guaranteed Standards Scheme (GSS) which provides minimum standards of service, promises have been made to establish a "separate fund for businesses".

A letter sent out on Monday reads: "On top of the GSS guided payments, we are establishing a separate fund for businesses that faced specific financial losses.

"This will be managed independently, and we will share details on how to apply shortly. This takes the total package of compensation to businesses up to £2.5 million."

With respect to GSS payments, SEW states in the same letter that it is "fast-tracking payments to water retailers" for businesses.

Moreover, the water company has confirmed that while regulations ordinarily limit compensation to two years' worth of water charges, this has been waived for both businesses and non-business customers.

The letter reads: "We recognise the disruption this incident has caused and are committed to compensating you fairly."

The failure was caused by disinfection issues at Pembury Water Treatment Works, with David Hinton later saying the company is too dependent on individual facilities.

SEW was one of five companies to contest regulator Ofwat's latest price controls, which already allowed it to increase an average annual bill from £232 to £274 by 2030.

The Competition and Markets Authority has provisionally agreed that SEW can increase bills by an extra four percent, pending a final decision in 2026.

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