Kent County Council's (KCC) Leader has pushed for a government-backed recovery fund to provide 'meaningful and urgent financial relief' to all hit by the town's water supply issues.

Writing to Defra Secretary of State Emma Reynolds, Linden Kemkaran described the recent water issues, including outages then a notice to boil tap water for drinking, preparing food and brushing teeth, as a 'catastrophic failure'.

The Leader then goes on to make an urgent request for Westminster assistance for both residents and businesses affected by the 'unprecedented disruption'.

She also asks for a 'swift and full investigation' into the causes of the water supply problems and 'the adequacy' of South East Water’s response.

The letter in full:

Dear Secretary of State,

I am writing on behalf of Kent County Council and the residents of Kent to formally express deep concern regarding the recent catastrophic failure of water supply services provided by South East Water, which left over 24,000 households and businesses in our County without access to clean running water for up to six days.  When supplies were eventually restored, a “boil notice” was put in place and still remains today. I would like to thank you for your department’s oversight of the issues - the intervention has helped to hold South East Water to account.

The unprecedented disruption since the 29^th November was caused by a failure at the Pembury Water Treatment Works. The impact on the daily lives of our residents, local businesses and key services such as health, education and social care provision has been profound and has threatened the viability of our local economy.

Despite the restoration of supply to most properties, at least at the time of writing, the precautionary boil notice remains in place, further compounding the hardship faced by our community. Whilst South East Water repeatedly failed to meet its own restoration timelines, residents were unable to carry out basic activities such as cooking and washing, enduring an experience that simply should not occur in a modern developed country. Local businesses - particularly in the hospitality and retail sectors - have suffered significant financial losses during what should have been their busiest trading period in the run-up to Christmas.

I am genuinely concerned that the standard compensation levels will fall far short of covering the actual losses incurred - particularly for small businesses. While I note the Government’s recent strengthening of the Guaranteed Standards Scheme, this scheme was never designed to address the scale and duration of disruption experienced in this incident. The Scheme also envisaged a position where business are able to claim on business interruption insurance. As you are aware many businesses are unable to make a valid claim and where they can, they will be faced with higher future costs and premiums. The economic climate is already difficult and many of our small businesses will simply not survive.

I have also heard South East Water say that they are "fully committed to compensating our customers fairly for this disruption "but I am yet to see meaningful steps, beyond the £50 credited to residential customers’ accounts. Any compensation MUST make an immediate and significant difference to residents and business who have been affected.

Throughout this crisis, the response locally has been incredible, with communities and strong multi-agency working attempting to mitigate the very worst impacts on residents and businesses.

The reality, however, is that our residents, communities and businesses should not have to foot the bill for the systemic and repeated failures by South East Water or live with the continuing risk of further outages from an organisation that has failed on more than one occasion.

I therefore urge the Government to:

1. Establish a dedicated compensation/recovery fund to provide meaningful and urgent financial relief to affected businesses and residents. Others have called for a “covid style support” offer and urgent action is required to support the liquidity of businesses and the financial wellbeing of our residents who have subsidised this failure.  As part of this, South East Water should immediately address the cashflow issues for businesses.
2. Ensure that any costs incurred by public service partners are reimbursed in full by South East Water.
3. Ensure that the necessary capital expenditure is prioritised by South East Water to ensure that there is a permanent resolution to this issue and to shore up the fragility of water supply in Tunbridge Wells.
4. Work with Ofwat and the Drinking Water Inspectorate to ensure a swift, full and transparent investigation into the causes of the failure and the adequacy of South East Water’s response.
5. Consider legislative or regulatory reforms to ensure greater accountability and resilience in the water sector, particularly in light of repeated failures by South East Water in recent years.

As we have done consistently over the past week, Kent County Council stands ready to support any Government-led efforts to ensure that our community receives the support it urgently needs and that such a failure is never repeated.

I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you and your officials at the earliest opportunity to discuss the way forward.

Yours sincerely

Linden Kemkaran

Source and picture credit: Kent County Council