South East Water (Finance) Limited

Ofwat undertakings

Today, we announced a significant milestone regarding the conclusion of Ofwat's investigation into our supply interruption events, the separate investigation into SEW's compliance with licence condition G following the two supply events in winter 2025/26; and our breach of licence condition P26, which requires two 'investment grade' credit ratings.

Following close collaboration with the regulator, we have finalised a £30.5 million redress package. This legally binding commitment replaces the initially proposed £22.5 million financial fine.

What does this mean for South East Water?

This package places customer redress at its heart and will fund:

·      £13m to undertake further investment following an independent root and branch review of the company's resilience.

·      £5m to speed up the smart metering programme for businesses.

·      £5m to help households to collect rainwater and reduce demand on the mains supply through the provision of free water butts.

·      £5m to install on-site storage tanks and smart meters in high-usage businesses to help manage the network better at peak times.

·      £1m to make sure critical settings don't run out of water if there is a future outage.

·      £1.5m to create a community relief fund to give back to communities that suffered the worst water supply failures.

This package is designed to align with our Price Review 24 (PR24) Business Plan, which is the largest investment programme in our company's history. Moving forward, our absolute focus is on transforming our business, improving network resilience, growing our drinking water storage capacity, and sustainably securing our water resources.

Further information on the package of measures is published here:

https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/regulated-companies/investigations/closed-cases/enforcement-cases/

Any queries should be directed by email to James Grant ([email protected]), Craig Stansfield ([email protected]), and Aman Randhawa ([email protected]). 

ENDS.