South East Water will cough up £30.5m after a series of supply interruptions, customer failings, and for breaching its licence, the regulator Ofwat has announced. The watchdog said the redress package concludes three investigations into the supplier, including a previously proposed £22m fine for water supply failures between 2020 and 2023 that affected more than 286,000 people. Because nothing says 'we care' like a fine that's a fraction of your revenue.

Ofwat launched a second investigation at the start of this year after further supply interruptions in Tunbridge Wells and across Kent and Sussex between November and January, which left up to 70,000 homes without water. That's a lot of people realizing they should have invested in a rain barrel.

The third investigation followed the downgrading of South East Water’s credit rating by Moody’s in May, which meant the company was in breach of its licence condition. Ofwat will now appoint an independent monitor to review South East Water’s performance improvement plan and wider turnaround efforts. Because nothing says 'accountability' like hiring someone to watch the people who were supposed to be watching the pipes.

Helen Campbell, the executive director for delivery at Ofwat, said: “South East Water must now focus on what matters most - its customers. These failures have caused real disruption and hardship for residents and businesses across many years, and supply interruptions of this scale have happened far too often.” Indeed, one might argue that providing water is kind of the whole point of a water company.

About half of the fine, £13m, will be ringfenced for fixing issues that caused the supply failures at South East Water. Ofwat said £1.5m would go towards a community fund to provide support for areas in Kent and Sussex that were affected by failures. As part of the package, £5m will be provided for free water butts for households, and two separate £5m payments will be made for site storage and smart metering for non-household users, such as businesses and public sector sites. So at least some people will get free buckets to catch the water that should be coming out of their taps.

The ruling is the latest in a series of investigations by Ofwat in the water sector, which has resulted in fines and enforcement packages worth more than £300m. The biggest penalty was for Thames Water in May last year over wastewater failures, with the watchdog charging the company £104m over environmental breaches involving sewage spills. The future of Thames Water still remains uncertain, although its creditors have said they are willing to pursue their bid for the debt-laden company even if the next prime minister, Andy Burnham, brings it into temporary nationalisation.

Ofwat is still investigating some water companies, though last week it said it had decided to spare Severn Trent a fine despite “serious and unacceptable breaches” in its handling of wastewater and sewage. It found that Severn Trent, which supplies water to more than 8 million people across England and Wales, had breached its duties by failing to effectively provide drainage and deal with the contents of its sewers. However, it said that unlike many other water companies under investigation, Severn Trent proactively identified problems in its network and began dealing with them before a case was opened in July 2024. So the bar for 'good behavior' is 'noticing your own problems before the regulator has to point them out'.