Water firm says it is too reliant on one asset after Kent outage
South East Water chief executive cites need for greater resilience as regulator price talks continue and a plan to expand at Bewl Water is considered.
A six-day disruption to tap water in Kent affected about 24,000 properties in and around Tunbridge Wells, with supplies failing on 29 November and most restored by 4 December. For the ensuing nine days, residents were advised to boil the restored water before consumption to ensure safety as systems returned to normal.
A disinfection fault at Pembury Water Treatment Works caused the outage, though South East Water said there was no evidence the water supply itself was infected. The company’s chief executive, David Hinton, said the firm was “just too reliant in some areas on one asset” and needs to diversify its capacity to avoid repeat problems. He outlined a plan to accelerate work at Bewl Water reservoir, near Wadhurst in East Sussex, with a projected £30 million investment to expand output capacity and boost resilience. “The proposal would give the company the ability to ‘rapidly fill the area of Tunbridge Wells, for example, as soon as we see any issue,’” he said, adding that the upgrade would provide “extra resilience should any other challenges hit any other treatment works” without further draining the reservoir.
South East Water is seeking to fund these improvements in the face of regulatory pressure over bills. The company was one of five water firms to contest Ofwat’s latest price controls, which already allowed an average annual bill rise from about £232 to £274 by 2030. The Competition and Markets Authority has provisionally agreed to an extra 4% increase, pending a final decision in 2026. Hinton said the Bewl Water proposal was a reason for asking the regulator to permit a higher revenue cap to fund needed infrastructure.
The firm suspects that some factor at Pembury reservoir contributed to the loss of supply, though it has pledged a “full investigation.” The Drinking Water Inspectorate said it is investigating the Tunbridge Wells incident. In the broader context, Kent and Sussex experienced hosepipe restrictions in July after dry weather earlier in 2025, underscoring ongoing supply and drought pressures in the region. The episode has drawn scrutiny of the company’s performance and has led to calls for Hinton to resign, even as he defends the plan to strengthen resilience for the wider Kent area.