South East Water boss steps down following £22m fine over failures that left thousands without water

Chris Train, the chairman of the under-fire supplier, stepped down "with immediate effect" on Friday following a wave of criticism over his handling of supply issues that saw him slapped with a £22m fine.

It follows a highly-critical report over the company’s handling of major outages across Kent and Sussex that left many unable to access drinking water, use showers and flush toilets.

The industry regulator said the supplier's "significant failings caused major disruption" in Kent and Sussex, leaving thousands of customers without tap water, unable to shower or bathe or flush their toilets.

On Friday, the water group confirmed that Chris Train had resigned and is set to be replaced on an interim basis by non-executive director Lisa Clement.

It comes as MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee published a scathing report, saying they have “no confidence” in South East Water’s chief executive and board.

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In a statement, South East Water said: “Board discussions have taken place in recent weeks regarding the company’s recovery and transformation plan.

“As part of this, the board and Chris considered the leadership of South East Water and mutually agreed that new independent board leadership is now required to oversee a critical period of positive, transformative change for the company, its customers and local communities.

“The board has accepted Chris’ resignation and thanks him for his service and significant contribution during his tenure.”

The £22m fine handed to the company applies to issues during 2020 and 2023 which affected more than 286,000 people, but does not cover more recent incidents.

It is also under investigation for outages over further outages that have taken place in the last four months.

Last December up to 16,000 homes went without water for almost a week, while in January about 30,000 properties faced issues.

South East Water said on Thursday: “We recently filed for judicial review of an Ofwat draft decision and sought an injunction.

"Following a hearing, the court did not grant the interim injunction. We respect the court’s decision on this.

"We are now considering Ofwat’s draft decision and will respond via the appropriate channels, ahead of its final decision."

An investigation by Ofwat found that the supplier did not adequately plan for potential issues, failed to learn from past incidents — such as the Beast from the East cold weather in early 2018 — and did not carry out sufficient analysis to identify the root causes of the problems.

Ofwat also said the company failed to properly maintain key infrastructure, including service reservoirs, boreholes and major pipes.

The watchdog said: "All of these issues left the system more likely to fail during prolonged dry periods or freeze thaw events as we have seen in Kent and Sussex on multiple occasions."

Chris Walters, interim CEO at Ofwat, said: "Not only did the company fail in its duty to provide a water supply to meet the demands of its customers, but it also fell short when it came to providing support for customers who lost their supply. They must do better.

"This investigation gets to the heart of the company's supply resilience problems. We want to see South East Water take more responsibility and get on with fixing things for its customers."

This comes after Thames Water was fined £122.7m in May last year for breaching regulations related to sewage discharges and dividend payments.