Ofwat has called South East Water’s board to an urgent meeting to address supply problems in recent weeks that left customers with low or no supply.
David Black, chief executive of Ofwat, wrote to South East’s chief executive David Hinton requesting the urgent meeting with board members after complaints were made against the company.
A hosepipe ban has been introduced from today (26 June) after high demand left the company struggling to supply enough water in the hot weather.
It follows on from a difficult winter in which supply issues also hit South East customers. In December, 42,312 properties were affected by the freeze thaw event, which left some customers without water and led to a spike in pipe bursts.
Black expressed concern that South East experienced problems so early in the summer that were similar to supply interruptions in July last year. He said Ofwat’s review of the freeze-thaw found South East needed to improve its planning and preparedness for extreme weather events.
He wrote: “We urgently want to discuss your recent and underlying performance problems; the significant impacts these have had on your customers; your understanding of their underlying causes; and what actions you are taking to address this and improve reliability of service to your customers for the future.”
Customers have complained to the regulator, Black said, who did not receive adequate response from South East during the recent supply problems, or after raising concerns.
He said South East needed to answer questions about the steps it is taking to fix the problems and prevent it from happening again, as well as explain how customers will be compensated.
Hinton acknowledged the letter from Ofwat chief executive and said: “We are cooperating with the request in the letter and will be meeting shortly to discuss.”
Last week, Hinton publicly apologised to customers whose water had been impacted and set out causes for the issues. This included a demand surge in the hot weather as well as longer-term increased consumption due to more people working from home in the commuter belt heartland.
The company pumped 20% more water into its networks during the hot weather but struggled to meet demand, leading to pressure problems. Its supplies remain robust after the winter, but treating and pumping water overloaded the networks.