South East Water’s greatest failure was not contacting customers during winter outages, report finds

South East Water faced further criticism after outages saw hundreds of households across Kent and Sussex without water during last week’s hot weather. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

South East Water failed to adequately communicate with customers during outages last winter that left tens of thousands of people without water, a report has concluded.

Fewer than one in 10 SEW customers were satisfied with how the company handled the water supply crisis that stretched across parts of Kent and Sussex last winter, the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) said. The independent body’s report found communication was the company’s greatest failing.