MPs say South East Water boss ‘Not up to the job’ following outages
An urgent question has been asked in the Commons about the situation
Last updated 13th Jan 2026
The leader of a water company which has seen two major outages in two months is "not up to the job" and should be "moved on", MPs have said.
Ministers failed to defend the chief executive of South East Water (SEW) during an urgent question in the Commons on Monday, following a major incident being declared in Kent and Sussex, with around 30,000 properties without supply.
Customers in Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead, Maidstone, Whitstable, Canterbury and surrounding towns were left without water on Monday, with SEW blaming Storm Goretti and the cold weather.
It is the second time in two months properties in the area have been without water, with 24,000 people in Tunbridge Wells suffering supply issues in December 2025.
Multiple MPs from across the impacted area called for the Government to remove the company's chief executive, David Hinton, from his post.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said around 5,000 properties in her Faversham and Mid Kent constituency had been impacted.
She said: "That, on its own, is bad enough, but then we have how South East Water responded: failing to deliver water to vulnerable people, sending elderly residents on a two-hour round trip to get bottled water, sometimes only to find that there was none. This is a disgrace.
"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?"
Mims Davies, Conservative MP for East Grinstead, Uckfield and the Villages, who brought the issue to the House, said water bottle stations had been "poorly organised".
She added: "With multiple and repeated South East Water serious failings in just the last five years, does the minister agree with me this water company needs urgent new leadership capable of properly addressing emergency situations?"
Water minister Emma Hardy did not offer any support for SEW's chief executive, saying the situation at the company "beggars belief".
"She's quite right in also raising problems around this company," she said.
"They're already under investigation from the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) because of the previous issues in Tunbridge Wells.
"The DWI will be doing further investigations, and I've already met with Ofwat to discuss my concerns around performance issues at the company, and I've asked them to investigate whether or not South East Water is meeting its obligations in serving its customers."
South East Water incident manager Steve Andrews apologised to customers and said the company's focus was on "returning supplies to our customers as soon as possible".