South East Water board ‘still supports boss’ despite major screw-ups

The chair of South East Water has said that the company “fully supports” the executive team, despite weeks of failings and water outages.

Over the last few weeks, South East Water left customers across Kent without water on several occasions.

Only last week, 6,500 properties were without water. Whilst the company restored the supply on Friday, January 16, it then left a further 5,500 homes without water on Sunday evening. This was due to a treatment works fault, a power outage and two burst mains – all at the same time.

The company left an additional 320 properties in the Bidborough area of Tunbridge Wells without supply or with low pressure. This was because of “air in the network”.

Air in the network? Or air in the bosses’ heads?

It seems that South East Water water has now restored the water. However, it’s only a matter of time before it happens again.

Earlier this month, 30,000 homes had no water for six days. One customer compared the situation to “Armageddon”.

South East Water: blaming the weather

In a statement to KentOnline, Chris Train, South East Water’s chair, said:

We fully support the Executive Team and the frontline teams working around the clock to resolve the problems caused by a combination of weather factors and operational challenges.

So instead of blaming shitty management, privatisation and huge payouts to shareholders, he wants to blame the weather? In a country known for its constant shitty weather?

There is no doubt that Ofwat should remove South East Water’s license immediately.

I would just take the licence off South East water now. Ridiculous what the people are having to go through.

— Jamie Parkinson (@jamieparkie) January 19, 2026

And let’s not forget that boss David Hinton takes home £457,000 every year – and that figure is set to increase.

Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, has called for the regulator to review the company’s operating licence. Should South East Water lose its license, it would enter a special administration until a company decides to purchase it. If Ofwat decides it has broken its license, it can fine the company up to 10% of its annual turnover.

I am losing count of the number of outages, burst pipes, ‘treatment works faults’, and general fuck ups when it comes to South East Water. All while it keeps increasing the pay of the muppets in charge. No one should be earning that amount of money, but under capitalist privatisation, they are. Which means they should be held to the highest possible standard and forced to run the most perfect public service a country has ever seen.

But of course, that will never happen in the UK while our politicians themselves are lining their own pockets because of privatisation.

Feature image via ITV News/YouTube