Council Leader responds to latest Tunbridge Wells water incident
Council Leader Ben Chapelard has hit out at South East Water as water supply continues to be a problem for Tunbridge Wells.
Council leader Cllr Ben Chapelard said:
Another Major Incident for Tunbridge Wells has been declared by the Kent Resilience Forum as a result of the ongoing water supply outages. A growing number of our communities across the borough are now being impacted, and it is getting increasingly difficult for residents, businesses and schools to cope with the uncertainties, anxieties and practicalities regarding what is an essential service.
As a member of Kent Resilience Forum the Council is once again fully engaged in the multi-agency process of monitoring the incident and supporting the emergency response. We cannot tell the water company what to do but we can scrutinise their operational handling of the incident and hold them to account.
Kent and Medway Resilience Forum
TWBC is part of the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum that declared the Major Incident on Sunday 11 January 2026.
The KMRF is a partnership of organisations and agencies who work together to improve the resilience of Kent and Medway, and to ensure a coordinated response to emergencies that could have a significant impact on communities. Its members include utility companies, local authorities and health providers, as well as the emergency services.
Declaring a Major Incident makes it easier for KMRF partners to work closely together to plan and prepare to help keep communities safe, keep vital infrastructure operating and essential services running in the event of a significant issue, such as widespread water supply disruption.
Since the water supplies were impacted, regular meetings have been taking place between Local Resilience Forum partners. Those meetings have included Kent County Council (including those responsible for schools, public health, social care and emergency planning), district councils, Kent Police, Kent Fire and Rescue, health and a range of national departments and agencies including DEFRA, the Ministry for Communities, Housing and Local Government, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the UK Health Security Agency, the Environment Agency, UK Power Networks and the water companies themselves.
The meetings have been scaled up as the areas impacted spread and additional specialist ‘cells’ have been set up to support South East Water in providing assistance to vulnerable people and to health and care settings, schools and other critical infrastructure and to manage communications. From 10 January – with outages widespread across Kent – a Strategic Coordination Group was set up (chaired by KCC).
The meetings focused on the priorities set out within the Water Supply Disruption Plan including the preservation of life, minimising risk to the public and to hospitals, care homes, and education settings, so support vulnerable people, to ensure the provision of fire-fighting water, to maintain the continuity of essential local services and to support SEW in minimising the disruption to local communities (including local businesses) and in communication and to facilitate a return to normality at the earliest opportunity.
In addition to the formal command and control structures set up under the KRF, regular meetings have also been taking place with the Secretary of State and Under-Secretaries of State for Water and Flooding and Nature. This culminated in a visit from the Secretary of State to the borough on 14 January.
kentprepared.org.uk/post/response-to-ongoing-water-supply-issues
TWBC
In parallel the actions described above we have been working closely with the local MP to understand and raise local issues with South East Water; including the need to provide clear, accurate and timely information, to ensure adequate supplies of alternative water supply, to keep schools open and to provide a timely resumption of supply, and to hold South East Water to account.
This has involved regular conversations with senior representatives of South East Water (both one to one and through the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum structures and Ministerial meetings) and dialogue with the relevant regulators.
TWBC has responded to the inquiry being undertaken by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (see below).
South East Water attended TWBC’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 22 December 2025 and are scheduled to return on 26 January 2026.
The Council also submitted evidence to the EFRA Select Committee hearing on 6 January 2026 (see below).
Along with the local MP we have been working with Royal Tunbridge Wells Together Business Improvement District and affected businesses to seek compensation for both business and residential customers.
We have been using our own channels to amplify the communications issued by South East Water. This includes social media and our residents’ email, you can sign up to the email at twbc.online/alerts.
The Drinking Water Inspectorate
The Drinking Water Inspectorate published a statement on 13 January saying it was investigating loss of the incidents in Kent.
The Inspectorate is the drinking water quality regulator for England and Wales and enforces The Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2016 and the Security and Emergency Measures Direction 2022. The Inspectorate has commenced an investigation into the incidents, which will include consideration of the circumstances leading up to the loss of supply, the actions taken by the company during the event, and its communications with consumers.
The Inspectorate will take appropriate enforcement action, within its statutory powers, where required, to protect public health and to plan and prepare for loss of supply incidents.
Ofwat
Ofwat is the economic regulator for the water and wastewater sector in England. They use regulator tools ‘to push water companies to perform better, including by planning effectively and investing to meet the sector’s long-term challenges’.
On 15 January Ofwat announced it has opened an investigation into South East Water following repeated outages.
That investigation will look at whether South East Water has complied with its customer-focused licence condition, which is in place to ensure that companies provide appropriate support to their customers when things go wrong, including during supply interruption incidents.
The customer licence condition gives Ofwat powers to act against a water company which fails to provide appropriate support to its customers. If they are satisfied that a company has breached a condition of its licence they must take enforcement action to secure compliance. In addition, they can impose a fine on the company of up to 10% of the company’s turnover.
Ofwat already has an open investigation into South East Water’s supply resilience to determine whether it has failed to develop and maintain an efficient water supply system. This is ongoing.
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA)
EFRA is a parliamentary select committee that scrutinises the work of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Following water outages and a subsequent boil notice issued to customers in Tunbridge Wells the committee invited David Hinton, South East Water Chief Executive to answer questions from MPs at a hearing on 6 January.
Since that hearing the EFRA Committee Chair Alistair Carmichael MP has said:
Members of the press and public would be forgiven for seeing Mr Train’s announcement of a further review of the Pembury failure as an attempt to buy themselves time, to hunker down until this storm blows over. They also assert that their review will be ‘independent’. It stretches the meaning of ‘independent’ when their review is to be conducted by a member of its board, supported by its staff. What was the investigation done by the Drinking Water Inspectorate if it was not an independent review?
My colleagues and I remain deeply sceptical about the company’s version of events to date, and its Board’s track record of holding the company to account. We would be failing in our duty if we now allowed them without challenge to mark their own homework, let alone on a timescale that will add months to the process.
We will seek a further evidence session with both the Drinking Water Inspectorate and the company’s Chief Executive and Chair. Ahead of that we shall gather further evidence and allow the current outage affecting customers in areas of Kent and Sussex to pass. I would expect the forthcoming session to include one of the non-executive directors as we now see issues of corporate governance affecting the delivery of the company’s services.
committees.parliament.uk/event/26123
Where to get the latest information
By way of a reminder the South East Water website has the latest updates on water outages in Tunbridge Wells and you can sign up for text updates too southeastwater.co.uk/
Priority register
We are grateful to everyone who is showing concern and supporting vulnerable family, friends and neighbours.
South East Water’s customer care team, and Water Direct who work with them, continue to deliver bottled water to the most vulnerable customers who are signed up to the Priority Services Register (PSR).
If you need extra help because of because of your age, a health condition, a disability, or even just a temporary change in your situation you can sign up to the PSR by visiting southeastwater.co.uk/psr or calling 0333 000 0365.
Bottled water station
There are bottled water stations open from 9am until 10pm at:
- Tunbridge Wells Rugby Football Club, St. Marks Recreation Ground, Tunbridge Wells TN2 5LS.
- Odeon Cinema car park, Knights Way, TN2 3UW
- RCP Car Park – Major York’s Rd (Upper Pantiles Car Park aka fairground car park) TN2 5TP
Please check the South East Water website before visiting as the station can be closed for a short time if they need to restock.
Further information
We will continue to update our social media channels with information, advice and guidance https://www.facebook.com/TunbridgeWellsBoroughCouncil
Visit South East Water’s website at www.southeastwater.co.uk for the latest updates and follow South East Water on X-Twitter and Facebook.
