Water Compensation Victory
PAUL McLAUGHLIN
Southern Water has agreed to pay £2.8 million in compensation to its customers in Hastings who were left without water for several days last May. The incident, which left 30,000 homes across the town without water, was caused by a broken water pipe connecting the Darwell Reservoir with the town.
The burst pipe and subsequent water outage occurred on the busiest weekend of the year for tourism in the town. It decimated business for local hotels and shops hoping to capitalise on the traditional Jack-in-the-Green festival and the Mayday Run, the annual motorcycle rally, which together draw thousands of visitors into the town.
The privatised water company admitted that they had been aware of the need to replace the water pipe for many years. In 2007, Southern Water submitted a planning application to replace a 12km section of the pipe between the Darwell Reservoir and the Beauport Water Supply Works but never started the work.
When the pipe burst on 2 May 2024, tens of thousands of homes were left without water with many of them only regaining their supply five days later. During the outage, Southern Water was forced to set up bottled water stations around town. There was gridlock across much of Hastings and St Leonards as residents queued in cars to get emergency water supplies.
Southern Water refused to pay compensation at the time. They argued that the nature of the burst, coupled with the provision of alternative sources of water meant that the incident did not qualify for any compensation payments under regulations and guidance set by the regulator, Ofwat. Instead, the company set up a £1 million goodwill fund to provide grants for local businesses, community events, groups, and charities.
The people of Hastings were not to be denied, however. Paul Barnett and Julia Hilton, the former and current Leaders of Hastings BC, led a determined campaign to hold Southern Water to account. They were joined in July last year by the new Labour MP, Helena Dollimore, who took up the challenge in Parliament. She grilled the Southern Water CEO, Lawrence Gosden, at the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee and, with Government support, pushed him to agree to review the company’s policy on the matter.
Under the terms of the new compensation package, eligible households affected by the outagewill receive £50 for every 12 hours they were left without water. As a result, some households will receive up to £250 to recompense them for the incident.
Ms Dollimore welcomed the compensation package saying it was “right and proper that people who were left without water for up to five days are compensated after what was such a distressing incident for our community.”
She has vowed to keep up the pressure on Southern Water to “fix crumbling infrastructure, clean up our sea and guarantee a reliable water supply of which we can all be proud.”
Southern Water hopes the compensation package will help rebuild trust with its customers in the town after the impact of what it described as “this awful incident”. The company says the pipe that burst has been fixed as part of an £80 million investment plan for the town which, it says, “will deliver performance improvements across the board, including building resilience into the water supply network, reducing storm overflows, and collaborating with other agencies to address flood risk.”
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, also welcomed the compensation package and said the Government was “determined to increase the accountability of water executives for when things go wrong.” He said the new Water Special Measures Bill, which is making its way through Parliament, includes strong powers to ensure bosses face personal criminal liability for lawbreaking and will give the water regulator new powers to ban the payment of bonuses if environmental standards are not met. The bill will also require water companies to install real-time monitors at every sewage outlet, with data independently scrutinised by the water regulators.
Inevitably, there is a cost to securing improved standards of water quality. Southern Water household bills, for example, are due to rise by an eye-watering 53% over the next five years. The company says the price rises are “vital” to funding infrastructure improvements and to prevent instances such as that which occurred in Hastings last year.
However, after years of poor performance by Southern Water, convincing customers that the price rises are worth it may prove to be a challenge too far for the beleaguered company.
The Environmental campaigner, Feargal Sharkey, took to Twitter to welcome the “huge victory”. He said it was “a timely reminder that you can win when you are prepared to say no and stand up to monopolies,” adding, “phenomenally well done to the people of Hastings and tenacious local MP Helena Dollimore.”
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
This is no victory given that the water bills went up by more than the compensation in March 2025.