Holding Southern Water to account

I know that one of the biggest issues for everyone living in Hastings, Rye and the villages is the constant failure of Southern Water, from sewage to flooding to major water outages.  

The water companies have been let off the hook for too long. Instead of forcing the industry to invest in fixing infrastructure, for years customers’ money was siphoned off into shareholder payouts and bonuses. In Rye and the villages, we suffered the consequences of this first-hand when residents were left without water for days in September 2023, and have suffered again every time Southern Water pumped sewage into our sea. 

Holding Southern Water to account is my top priority. I sit on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, a cross-party group of MPs who scrutinise the water industry to find out how these issues can be addressed. 

One of our first actions as a Committee was to launch an inquiry into the water sector. We have been hauling in the water bosses one by one; demanding answers on their failures, examining the state of the water industry, hearing from campaigners and experts on what needs to change. 

Grilling the CEO of Southern Water

First up was the CEO of Southern Water. I pushed him on the impact of water outages, and crucially I made him listen to our experiences to demonstrate just how distressing these incidents have been for our communities. We had bottled water promised but not delivered to vulnerable people. We had too few water stations opened. We had traffic gridlock unleashed in our towns. All the while, businesses were forced to close, losing much money at key times. Schools had to close. Parents were unable to change their babies’ nappies. Old ladies were walking long distances trying to carry six two-litre bottles of water. Vulnerable people were simply not getting what they need, as well as the issues with basic sanitation and hygiene that you get when you cannot wash or wash up for several days.  

The Committee sessions have demonstrated the systematic failures of the water industry across the country. I grilled the CEO of South West Water about why she hid from the media during a major water crisis and failed to communicate with customers. I interrogated the CEO of Wessex Water on why the company had spent £250,000 on a TV advert that was finally banned for its misleading claims. Each session was a shocking inditement of the state of our water sector.  

This inquiry has been a reminder of the urgent need for reform of our water industry. The new Water Bill has begun to clean up the industry: banning bosses’ bonuses when they fail to meet basic standards, installing monitors on every single pipe outlet and linking them to a system of automatic and severe fines, and the powers to in the worst cases send water bosses to prison.  

We are also legislating to increase compensation received when the water companies get it wrong – something I’ve campaigned on since the water crises we experienced locally. Under the Labour Government’s new regulations, the loopholes allowing water companies to avoid paying out compensation during these incidents will be closed, and customers will benefit from significantly higher payments to compensate them for water company service failures.  

But this is just the start of the change. The Labour Government’s independent commission into the water sector will report back in the summer to see what more can be done. I will be working hard to represent the experiences of Hastings, Rye and the villages in that process, and keep the pressure on Southern Water to deliver for customers and the environment – not CEOs and shareholders. 

Originally published in Rye News