Customers challenge South East Water bosses at launch of new Water Voice consumer panels

Some of the Water Voice panellists meet with Rob Wilson, Chair of CCW, Mike Keil, Chief Executive of CCW, and Nicky Taylor, Managing Director at Taylor McKenzie Research, ahead of the session.

Customers demanded answers from South East Water bosses over the company’s handling of water supply disruption at the first meeting of a powerful new set of government-backed consumer panels.

Senior executives from the company, including Chief Executive David Hinton, were summoned to an emergency Accountability Session in Tunbridge Wells on Monday to answer for the disruption that left thousands of homes and businesses without water and under a boil water notice in late November and early December.

This customer-led forum has been established by the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) and gave affected customers the opportunity to directly challenge the company’s leadership and seek action to address their concerns.

Panellists pressed the company on its handling of the incident, with poor communication and bottled water provision being key concerns. They also asked for clarity on whether the cause of the disruption had been foreseeable and could have been avoided.

South East Water highlighted several areas where it plans to take action, including reviewing its communications, improving support for vulnerable customers and taking short-term steps to strengthen the resilience of its network.

The company must now develop an action plan to address all of the concerns raised by the panel. The plan will need to be approved by the panel before being published on CCW’s website on 11 March. CCW will then follow up with the water company to monitor progress against the agreed actions.

The session marked the launch of CCW’s Water Voice consumer panels, which form a key part of the UK Government’s plans to strengthen accountability in the water industry through ensuring water companies listen and respond to their customers.

Water Voice consists of 16 regional consumer panels, one for each water company in England and Wales. Each panel brings together around 50 customers who take part in regular research and surveys to share their views on their water company and the services they receive.

A smaller subset of panel members attend twice yearly Accountability Sessions where they can directly challenge their company’s senior executives on the issues that matter most to them, such as affordability, environmental performance and customer service.

Panels have the power to call emergency, ad-hoc Accountability Sessions in response to serious incidents, which is what led to this week’s session with South East Water.

Water Minister Emma Hardy said:

This is an unprecedented era of accountability in the water sector, made possible by this government’s new laws. These sessions allow customers to voice their concerns directly to water company executives, who must then explain how they are going to act in response.

It means bill payers have more of a say in how water companies are run, helping to rebuild public trust and drive the changes to clean up our rivers, lakes, and seas.

CCW Chair Rob Wilson said:

With trust in the water sector at an all-time low, these panels mark a turning point for ensuring water consumers are heard and their concerns acted upon.

Customers of every water company now have a genuine seat at the table to raise concerns and challenge company leadership face-to-face in a way the sector has not seen before.

The misery inflicted on communities across Kent and Sussex recently has reminded us exactly why this is needed. Consumers deserve transparency, accountability and real influence over the services they pay for and depend on. Companies now have nowhere to hide if they fail to meet their customers’ expectations.

A full transcript of the session will be published on Monday (9 February) on CCW’s Water Voice webpage, with a summary report following a week later.

The first Accountability Sessions for all Water Voice consumer panels will take place in March and April 2026.

Water Voice is a CCW-led project in partnership with Taylor McKenzie Research & Energy Saving Trust.