Around 25,000 customers continue to experience water issues
David Hinton, the chief executive of South East Water, appearing before the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee for a hearing on reforming the water sector, at the House of Commons(Image: © 2026 PA Media, All Rights Reserved)
Kent politicians have voiced their anger and concerns while thousands of homes still have no water, or an intermittent supply on Tuesday (January 13). Around 25,000 South East Water’s customers continue to experience outages across Kent and Sussex.
Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran described the ongoing situation as a ‘disgrace’. She said she will be asking her fellow Kent leaders to sign a letter to the head of SEW Dave Hinton asking him to step down from his position.
Many residents are now into a fourth day without water with the newest outages starting during the night between Friday (January 9) and Saturday last week. Ofwat, the water services regulation authority, has voiced “concern” about the outages, and says it will “review all the evidence” before deciding whether SEW has met its legal obligations to customer care.
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SEW has apologised, blaming this latest supply failure on the recent cold weather and a subsequent “breakout of leaks and bursts”. A spokesperson said: “Water supplies are returning to Loose in Maidstone, Blean near Canterbury, Headcorn, West Kingsdown and parts of Tunbridge Wells.
“Our large network takes time to refill and build pressure. If your water hasn’t returned yet, it should do soon. It is a gradual process and should return throughout the day.
“We are incredibly sorry to all customers and businesses who have been impacted by this and we are doing all we can to restore supplies as soon as possible.
“We are using 26 tankers to pump water directly into our network to increase the amount of water available in the affected areas and our leak repair teams are working around the clock to fix the leaks and bursts across Kent and Sussex, with extra resources available to help carry out repairs.”
Bottled water stations remain in place in Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead and Maidstone, and location details can be found on SEW’s website.
‘It’s disgraceful’
MP for Sevenoaks, Swanley and the Dartford Villages, Laura Trott said on Tuesday morning that a number of roads remain without water in West Kingsdown. She said: ” Engineers are on site to deal with the issue now. However, unhelpfully they are refusing to give me a timescale for when water supply should be returned to those still without. As soon as I hear anything I will be sure to let you know.
“It is disgraceful that some homes have now been without water for nearly 24 hours, and no water stations have been set up or deliveries made to vulnerable customers. I have made it clear to SE Water that I want this rectified with immediate effect, and I am reaching out to local councillors in the area to see what further support can be given.
“The communication from SE Water has been appalling and I am raising this at the highest levels of both the company and the Government. Residents deserve better.”
Last week, SEW’s chief executive David Hinton was grilled by MPs over his handling of a similar outage affecting 24,000 properties in Tunbridge Wells last month.
The chairman of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee Alistair Carmichael MP, later sent a letter questioning the “accuracy and intent” of Hinton’s evidence.
A number of MPs have called Hinton to resign including Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin and MP for Maidstone and Malling Helen Grant.
A number of them have signed a letter addressed to the chairman of SEW Chris Train. It reads: “We are writing to you as concerns MPs about our increasing frustration with the leadership of David Hinton, the Chief Executive Officer of South East Water, and are calling for you to initiate the necessary steps to bring his tenure to an end.
“Residents with no water supplies have again been expected to travel miles to their nearest water station. There appears to have been no recognition of the distances involved for some people.
“There has been a failure to set up community water stations despite parish councils and village halls offering to help. Sites reported as open with water when this was not the case, and this is unacceptable.”
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