8th Report – Failures at South East Water

Select Committee

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee HC 1861 1 May 2026

Report Status Response document linked Recorded deadline: 1 Jul 2026

Missing links do not establish that no response was published. A linked document does not verify responses to individual findings.

Conclusions & Recommendations 16 items (2 recs)

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Government response

3rd Special Report - Failures at South East Water: Government Response · published 10 Jul 2026

Read the government response ↗ Response on the tracker

Recommendations & Conclusions

16 results

1 Conclusion

Select committees do not often focus directly on the leadership, behaviour and performance of individual...

Conclusion

Select committees do not often focus directly on the leadership, behaviour and performance of individual private companies. The water sector, however, is a highly regulated monopoly provider of services essential to public health. Residents have no choice over their water … Read more

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

2 Conclusion

South East Water did not have the right processes in place to identify and mitigate...

Conclusion

South East Water did not have the right processes in place to identify and mitigate risks at Pembury Works, despite previous warnings from the DWI. That the company had “normalised” critical risks and was “flying blind” in the lead up … Read more

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

3 Conclusion

Maintenance issues at Pembury contributed to the Tunbridge Wells incident in 2025, but it is...

Conclusion

Maintenance issues at Pembury contributed to the Tunbridge Wells incident in 2025, but it is South East Water’s self-identified lack of proactive and “instinctive” maintenance across its network that is most concerning. One of the most fundamental and basic responsibilities … Read more

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

4 Conclusion

As regulators told South East Water repeatedly and jointly for over four years, the company...

Conclusion

As regulators told South East Water repeatedly and jointly for over four years, the company needed to invest in new infrastructure to be properly resilient to potential shocks. In particular, single points of failure, supply shortfalls and regional connectivity should … Read more

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

5 Conclusion

Despite South East Water’s assertions to the contrary, periods of peak demand and extreme weather...

Conclusion

Despite South East Water’s assertions to the contrary, periods of peak demand and extreme weather can and should be broadly predicted and prepared for. Ofwat and the Drinking Water Inspectorate have shown that the company failed to model upcoming peaks … Read more

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

6 Conclusion

Both the Drinking Water Inspectorate and South East Water acknowledge the weaknesses of the escalation...

Conclusion

Both the Drinking Water Inspectorate and South East Water acknowledge the weaknesses of the escalation processes around the Pembury incident. This meant that operational staff were not given sufficient support to diagnose problems early and that key stakeholders were informed … Read more

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

7 Conclusion

Given the huge number of supply interruptions that South East Water has failed to manage...

Conclusion

Given the huge number of supply interruptions that South East Water has failed to manage over the years, it is remarkable that the company still struggles with the supply of bottled water during outages, has failed to learn and apply … Read more

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

8 Conclusion

Similarly to the provision of alternative water supplies, South East Water now has years of...

Conclusion

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 … Read more

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

9 Conclusion

For a company with such regular issues with outages, South East Water’s approach to supporting...

Conclusion

For a company with such regular issues with outages, South East Water’s approach to supporting vulnerable customers gives the impression of a business caught completely by surprise. We accept that it is challenging to continuously update the Priority Services Register: … Read more

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

10 Conclusion

The Tunbridge Wells incident and Ofwat investigations reveal that South East Water’s leadership has repeatedly...

Conclusion

The Tunbridge Wells incident and Ofwat investigations reveal that South East Water’s leadership has repeatedly proved itself incapable of implementing the lessons learnt from previous incidents, even simple ones such as having a communication strategy for when resolution timeframes are … Read more

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

11 Conclusion

Since at least 2020, South East Water clearly has had, and continues to demonstrate, an...

Conclusion

Since at least 2020, South East Water clearly has had, and continues to demonstrate, an inability to establish the root causes of its supply resilience problems. There are likely many facets to this, including a failure to monitor the key … Read more

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

12 Conclusion

South East Water’s leadership team has demonstrated a clear preference for blaming factors outside of...

Conclusion

South East Water’s leadership team has demonstrated a clear preference for blaming factors outside of their control for performance issues, and in some cases, they continue to do so, despite clear evidence to the contrary. A lack of data-analysis skills … Read more

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

13 Recommendation

South East Water has failed to engage with key stakeholders outside the company to help...

Recommendation

South East Water has failed to engage with key stakeholders outside the company to help it learn from its mistakes. It is unwilling to properly listen to its customers, who have repeatedly complained of addressable failures 42 and yet continue … Read more

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

14 Conclusion

Continued leadership failure is grounds for leadership change.

Conclusion

Continued leadership failure is grounds for leadership change. Time and again, since 2020, South East Water’s leadership has failed in its fundamental task of supplying water to its customers. That is around six years of poor performance, sometimes with multiple … Read more

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

15 Conclusion

These failures are symptomatic of significant cultural problems that cannot be readily explained by issues...

Conclusion

These failures are symptomatic of significant cultural problems that cannot be readily explained by issues with the wider regulatory framework: this includes South East Water’s failure to engage with external stakeholders, inclination for groupthink, inability to analyse problems, incapability to … Read more

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

16 Recommendation

Repeating the same actions and expecting different results is not a well- regarded tactic for...

Recommendation

Repeating the same actions and expecting different results is not a well- regarded tactic for resolving problems. Yet the non-executives of South East Water have time and time again chosen to back a leadership that is clearly not capable of … Read more

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs