Southern Water are threatening a local journalist from independent magazine the Worthing Journal with defamation action over a matter of public interest:
God forbid a journalist does their job – especially an independent, local one.
But lets face it, Southern Water’s fury could be for myriad of different scandals. So, here are the top suspects.
Scandal 1 – ‘we sold the reservoirs and got rich’
A Southern waters boss told the public to ‘ration water’ after they sold off their reservoirs for profit.
As the Canary previously reported, Tim McMahon, managing director of Southern Water, previously told the public to ration water in hot weather.
Now, the buyers of the reservoirs have converted then into for-profit housing.
A previously reported-on document from 2018 shows that:
Southern Water will decommission 43 of 93 reservoirs between 2023 and 2030. Yet it only plans to build one more in the coming years with Thames Water. This suggests that for-profit companies are incapable of maintaining vital infrastructure that the country needs.
Scandal 2 – Southern Water destroying marine life at Ryde
As reported by Portsmouth News, Southern Water have also been accused of destroying marine life at Ryde on the Isle of Wight. Since January 2025, their sewage works at Appley have pumped raw sewage into the River Solent nearly 200 times, according to local councillor Michael Lilley.
He said:
The pipe has already burst in fields opposite Appley Manor this year because of the increasing flow and the pumping station looks an eyesore with fencing all round it.
Previously, Southern Water reduced the discharges at Gurnard as the beach had been significantly affected. However, discharges have increased again in recent months.
Scandal 3 – leaking pipe causes sinkhole
In February, a damaged Southern Water pipe burst causing a sinkhole to appear at the end of a private driveway in West Sussex.
Since then, Southern Water repaired the sinkhole. However, residents are concerned it will reappear, as the pipe has already burst again. According to local business owners, there is already a pool of water on top of the repair “so it is going to go again and it is going to affect us again”.
Scandal 4 – Southern Water wants its debt writing off
Southern Water have requested that their lenders write off around £370m in debt, which would allow “new equity to flow directly into the utility’s heavily-indebted operating company”.
According to the Financial Times:
Southern — which provides water and sewerage services to 4.7mn customers in the south-east of England — asked bondholders including Ares Management and Australian infrastructure investor Westbourne Capital to write off all of their debt, according to people familiar with the matter.
The investors own debt at Southern’s holding company level, which has roughly £370mn of external bonds, according to the company’s most recent filings. The debt sits at the top of the capital structure and far away from the utility’s operating assets, making it risky for investors to hold.
Macquarie took a majority stake in Southern in 2021. The Australian investor and the lenders are negotiating a compromise of a partial write down, but are yet to agree on terms. Macquarie’s demands are still too steep for lenders, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Scandal 5 – payouts for water outages
In December 2024, 58,000 people in Southampton, Eastleigh, Romsey, and the New Forest were affected by water supply outages in the lead up to Christmas.
According to the BBC, a technical issue at Southern Waters Testwood supply works caused the outages. They began on December 18 and service was restored on December 20. The BBC reports seeing compensation offers varying from £100 to £150.
Lawrence Gosden, Southern Waters CEO, said that it was “the single biggest supply incident in the company’s history”.
In 2023, Mr Gosden pocketed over £700,000. The firms financial statements shows they paid him a baseline salary of £480,000, with a bonus of £183,000. Additionally, he received £28,600 in benefits and another £72,000 in pension contributions. This means his total remuneration was £764,000. Since then, in April 2024 his salary increased to £500,000.
Something stinks
Regulator Ofwat greenlit Southern Water hiking customer bills from April by a staggering 53%. However, company still isn’t content. It’s appealing this with Ofwat and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and wants to raise bills by 84% – which it originally planned for.
Will these hikes pay for upgrades to the crumbling water infrastructure it has underinvested in for decades? Yeah right. It’s more likely to line the pockets of its CEO and shareholders. Those ridiculous six figure bonuses stink of profiteering.
Yet somehow, just somehow, it’s the journalist from the Worthing Journal that’s at fault for asking questions about Southern Water’s dire management and reputation. Well, the Canary says all power to local news for holding these corporate criminals to account.
Make sure you check out the Worthing Journal at http://worthingjournal.co.uk/
Feature image via the Canary
