Southeast Water CEO questioned after Tunbridge Wells water outages
Failures left thousands without drinking water under boil notice
The Chief Executive of Southeast Water, David Hinton, has appeared before Parliament to answer questions about failures that left 24,000 homes in Tunbridge Wells without drinking water in November and December 2025.
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee organised the public evidence session during a boil notice period which South East Water put in place after restoring water, as a "precautionary measure".
The EFRA Chair, Alistair Carmichael MP wrote to the CEO of South East Water (SEW) on 3 December, setting out his significant concerns about the lack of access to water for residents and essential services.
The Committee says the public evidence session will consider the company’s written response to the Chair’s questions about planning, resilience, capacity and communications.
Mr David Hinton has faced questions this morning, alongside SEW Customer Services Director, Tanya Sephton.
Groundwater issues at the root of problems
During the hearing, Mr Hinton was asked about the root of the water quality issue.
He explained that an unusually hot summer and dry spring contributed to changes in water quality, stating the small service reservoir from which they extract groundwater, was at "the lowest level it had ever been at" due to extreme weather conditions.
"Chemistry changes at different depths. So it could be that we were taking water from the lowest ends of the pond that we've never taken from before, and that is what's changed the water chemistry."
“We are still conducting experiments to confirm this was the issue,” Mr Hinton said.
Communication under scrutiny
MPs questioned Hinton’s response to criticism that he was not visible in his role as CEO during the incident, choosing to focus on technical problem-solving rather than public communication.
“I went to the heart of the issue to solve the problem for customers,” Mr Hinton said, defending his approach.
He acknowledged that media engagement during crises is often complicated by questions unrelated to the immediate event, such as executive salaries and corporate dividends.
He admitted that the company’s communication during the outage was disjointed and largely handled by other executives, which MPs suggested failed to inspire public confidence.
South East Water's track record
The committee also highlighted Southeast Water’s history of previous disruptions, including the 2018 freeze-thaw outage, which impacted the whole industry. MPs pointed out Ofwat, the water regulator, said South East water customers had been "badly let down" by this incident.
Mr Hinton replied: "I believe thy did say this yes".
MPs continued to question whether lessons had been learned from past incidents to improve resilience planning.
Mr Hinton confirmed that he had personally contributed expertise at the ground level during the recent emergency but denied the company lacked the capacity to prepare for such events.
Calls for improvement
Critics of South East Water’s handling of the Tunbridge Wells outage have pointed out the frustration of residents left waiting for answers and water for extended periods, with some experiencing an 18-minute wait time to reach customer services at the peak of the crisis.
The EFRA Committee has pressed the company to address concerns about its resilience planning, communication strategies, and capacity to deal with similar emergencies in the future.