This comes after Labour and Co-operative MP for Hastings Helena Dollimore questioned the water firm’s CEO Lawrence Gosden in Parliament.
The CEO has committed to review compensation for residents affected by the May 2024 Hastings water outage.
Southern Water digging around the burst pipe in May 2024 (Image: Southern Water) More than 30,000 people in St Leonards and the Hastings area were left without water following a burst water main in Keeper’s Wood.
Mr Gosden faced questions at the environment, food and rural affairs select committee about why Southern Water had given no compensation. This was contrasted with the promised £9.7 million in compensation for customers affected by the outage in Southampton before Christmas.
Helena outlined the scale of the impact caused by the water outage during the meeting, detailing how ‘bottled water was promised and not delivered’ and that ‘not enough water stations were opened’.
She further mentioned traffic gridlocks across the town, and people having ‘no water for over five days’ which stopped parents being able ‘to change their baby’s nappies’ and that a hotel in her constituency had to ‘fill buckets of water from the sea’ to flush their toilets.
Southern Water ceo Lawrence Gosden speaking at the meeting (Image: House of Commons) When asked if this was an acceptable set of circumstances, Mr Gosden said: “It is a completely unacceptable position for there to have been any incidents.”
He then agreed that Southern Water’s response to the incident’s was “unacceptable” and emphasised that the level of impact on the community was “inexcusable”.
When asked if Southern Water’s response was adequate, he said: “Our response throughout all four [water outages] has not been good enough.”
When asked by the Hastings MP whether he would look again at the decision not to compensate customers in Hastings, the CEO replied, “In simple terms, yes.”
Ms Dollimore also grilled him on why Southern Water had not repaired the “crumbling pipes that led to flooding and outages”, and why he had “pocketed a £183,000 bonus” in July 2024.
The Southern Water CEO said his bonus was based on the performance by the company in the water industry.
He said Southern moved “from the bottom of the industry through to just outside upper quartile” in one year.
Helena Dollimore MP for Hastings speaking at the meeting (Image: House of Commons) After the meeting, the MP said: “I have raised Southern Water’s failures at the highest levels in Parliament and with ministers and today we got the chance to question the CEO of Southern Water on the company’s failings in Hastings, Rye and villages from sewage dumping to flooding to outages.
“He rightly apologised for these failings and agreed to look again at compensation.
“I am pleased that I was able to hold the CEO of Southern Water to account and push him to award compensation to 30,000 of my constituents who were affected by the Hastings water outage in May last year.
“I believe there has been a dereliction of duty by Southern Water not to compensate us when the taps run dry.
“Indeed, residents have been forced to pay our bill for the days with no water!
“As the Labour Government implements major measures to review the water industry, Southern Water needs to urgently compensate residents and small businesses in Hastings, Rye and the villages beyond the legal minimums for the disruption and lost earnings they have caused.”
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