It comes after thousands of households across Kent and Sussex were left without water
08:32, 15 Jan 2026
Ofwat has launched an investigation into South East Water after thousands of households across Kent and Sussex were left without water.
Tunbridge Wells suffered a sustained outage in November and December 2025. There have been further supply problems at the start of 2026 caused by freeze-thaw events following the cold snap, and further issues with Storm Goretti causing outages which has led to more than 30,000 homes losing supply intermittently.
For live updates on the situation on the ground follow out live blog here: Kent water crisis continues as 17,000 customers still without water across county and Sussex - updates
The investigation will look at whether, and how, the company has complied with its customer-focused licence condition, which is in place to ensure that companies provide appropriate support to their customers when things go wrong, including during supply interruption incidents.
There is a separate investigation going on into South East Water's supply resilience.
Tunbridge Wells suffered a sustained outage in November and December 2025. There have been further supply problems at the start of January 2026, caused by freeze-thaw events following the cold snap, and further issues with Storm Goretti causing outages which has led to more than 30,000 homes losing supply intermittently.
Lynn Parker, Ofwat Senior Director for Enforcement, said: “The last six weeks have been miserable for businesses and households across Kent and Sussex with repeated supply problems.
"We know that this has had a huge impact on all parts of daily life and hurt businesses, particularly in the run up to the festive period. That is why we need to investigate and to determine whether the company has breached its licence condition."
A South East Water spokesperson said: "The company will always fully co-operate with any investigation by our regulators and provide any information required."