Similarly to the provision of alternative water supplies, South East Water now has years of experience in communicating during supply interruptions. It is incomprehensible that SEW still lacks a crisis communications strategy or a well-developed communications team given the company’s propensity for water outages. This put communication teams in a difficult position. Basic communications errors, like giving incorrect and inconsistent information about bottled water stations, using the wrong postcodes, poorly chosen language and a lack of empathy with customers, should not need external consultants to resolve. Vague answers to our questions to the company have not outlined what will happen to embed lessons, prevent future disconnections with operations, and ensure that a new communications “playbook” will be kept up to date and stress-tested. This does not give us confidence in the leadership’s ability to learn from its previous mistakes and address the problems we have identified. (Conclusion, Paragraph 46)