Residents in parts of southern England have renewed calls for government intervention at South East Water following repeated service failures that left thousands without running water. The Tunbridge Wells-based campaign group Dry Wells Action urged Prime Minister Andy Burnham to place the company into special administration, a form of temporary public ownership designed to stabilise struggling utilities.

South East Water provides water services to approximately 2.3 million customers across Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey, Sussex, and Kent. The company has faced mounting financial difficulties, including a debt load of £1.7 billion. Last week, it announced looming cash flow challenges but subsequently secured a £200 million funding agreement intended to support its operations in the short term. However, concerns remain about its longer-term viability.

Jonathan Hawker, chairman of Dry Wells Action, criticised South East Water’s performance as deficient on operational, financial, and strategic levels. He highlighted a series of major failures in Tunbridge Wells, where more than 70,000 homes experienced water outages late last year, prompting a £30 million fine for the company by the industry regulator Ofwat. Further incidents have occurred within the last eight months, including a disruption affecting about 7,000 properties in Tunbridge Wells and the nearby village of Pembury on July 18 and 19.

Hawker challenged assertions by South East Water attributing the outages to unusual weather, noting that neighbouring utilities maintained service under the same conditions. He blamed the issues on systemic problems within South East Water’s operations and leadership. The campaign group has urged ministers to create contingency plans to shield affected customers and to impose a construction moratorium in areas prone to water shortages.

South East Water’s difficulties coincide with ongoing debates about public control of UK utilities under the new Prime Minister’s administration, which has prioritised nationalising Thames Water through the Special Administration Regime (SAR). Thames Water’s main creditors have pushed back against this approach, offering the government a “golden share” to maintain some influence without a full takeover.

Credit rating agencies have responded to South East Water’s struggles by downgrading its debt to “junk” status. S&P Global lowered the rating after the recent funding deal, noting the company remains financially constrained before additional cash becomes accessible. Moody’s similarly cut the rating in May, resulting in the utility breaching its operational licence requirements.

The company has since paid a £30.5 million redress package to Ofwat and agreed to measures aimed at restoring compliance. An April report from the Drinking Water Inspectorate cited “systemic and repeated failings” in operational control and emergency management, which had significant consumer impacts. A parliamentary committee also issued a critical assessment of South East Water’s management of supply issues. Following the committee’s report in May, South East Water’s chief executive Dave Hinton and chairman Chris Train resigned.

A company spokesperson expressed regret over the outages and said South East Water is implementing changes to better manage supply interruptions. The situation continues to fuel calls for stronger regulatory and governmental oversight to prevent further service failures.