Water company chief blames supply crisis on people spending more time at home following Covid
The boss of the local water board scored his company's performance between a "six and and an eight" during the crisis
The water shortage crisis experienced by residents in Kent last month were partly caused by people working from home, the chief of a water company has claimed.
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Around 24,000 homes were left without drinking water in Tunbridge Wells for more than a week in December, the latest in a series of supply interruptions.
The chief executive of South East Water, David Hinton, told MPs on Tuesday that "lifestyle changes" caused by the pandemic could be to blame for mounting supply issues.
Mr Hinton told the environment, food and rural affairs committee on Tuesday: "Starting in 2021, we had an uptick in [water] demand following Covid.
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"We are a commuter-based area and a lot of our customers are spending a lot more time at home.
"There was lifestyle changes and we’ve had some really extreme weather events over that period between 2021 and 2025. And that’s meant the resilience of these particular areas have been stretched."
The company's boss also blamed new housing, extreme weather and regulatory limits on investment.
He added: "The southeast of England is particularly hit with climate change impacts. We've had just continued growth in housing forever, and this has meant demand has got very close to our ability to supply."
However, Mr Hinton was mocked by Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael, the committee's chairman, after scoring his company’s performance on the Tunbridge Wells incident at between six and eight out of ten.
Mr Carmichael asked: "How bad would it have to be for you to give yourself a failure?"
Mr Hinton also told the meeting that a heated phone call he had during the crisis with Mike Martin, the Lib Dem MP for Tunbridge Wells "wasn’t my finest moment."
Mr Martin Martin said Mr Hinton had accused him of political grandstanding and not understanding the situation.
Apologising to customers in Tunbridge Wells for what he admitted had been a "failure,' Mr Hinton added: "I know how really, really inconvenient it is to not have water. It really disrupts everyday life."