South East Water’s fats cat boss may bag £400k bonus whereas 1000’s of faucets run DRY
Pressure is mounting the boss of South East Water, David Hinton, as it emerged he banked an extra bonus for driving through 20% price hike, while thousands of households remain without water
South East Water boss David Hinton say his salary jump 30% last year(Image: PA)
The fat cat boss of a bungling water firm that has left tens of thousands of households without water is in line for a £400,000 bonus.
David Hinton, chief executive of South East Water, also pocketed a 30% pay rise last year when customers saw their bills leap by a fifth, and got a £50,000 perk for pushing through the hike. The windfall emerged as industry regulator Ofwat launched an unprecedented investigation into the firm’s catalogue of chaos since November, which has caused misery for customers left without supplies for days on end.
If Ofwat finds South East Water has not provided high standards of customer service then the firm could be stripped of its licence. It could also be fined 10% of its turnover. Ofwat’s investigation will look into into the firm’s recent track record, after around 30,000 properties across Kent and Sussex had no water at the height of the problems, with thousands still affected on Thursday. It previously blamed the supply disruptions on Storm Goretti – despite other areas of the UK being battered far worse – and a power cut at a pumping plant. South East Water said it had been working “around the clock” to fix the issues – most of which were burst water mains.
Tunbridge Wells suffered a sustained outage in November and December, with around 24,000 properties in and around the Kent town left without drinkable water for almost two weeks.
Ofwat, which risks being scrapped under plans to be announced in a government white paper next week, has faced criticism for not acting sooner. A separate investigation into South East Water was launched in 2023 and still has not concluded.
Mr Hinton, 58, trousered £457,000 in pay and perks in the 12 months to April last year, including a £115,000 bonus. But his package could leap after the company rubber-stamped a 30% jump in his basic pay to £400,000 from the start of April 2025. Should he resist pressure to go, then he could bag a £400,000 “service award” in 2030 to “recognise the importance of retaining experienced executive leadership”. Mr Hinton also picked-up an extra £50,000, his putting in extra hours in negotiating a wave of bill increases that started in April last year, when prices jumped by an average 20%.
South East Water’s annual report insisted that it supplies “top quality drinking” to its 2.3 million customers. The company is 50% owned by a Utilities Trust of Australia, an infrastructure fund, along with NatWest Group’s pension fund and Canadian financial firm Desjardins. While no dividend was paid last year, they shared £2.25million in 2024.
Lynn Parker, Ofwat senior director for enforcement, said: “The last six weeks have been miserable for businesses and households across Kent and Sussex with repeated supply problems. We know that this has had a huge impact on all parts of daily life and hurt businesses, particularly in the run-up to the festive period. That is why we need to investigate and to determine whether the company has breached its licence condition.”
Mike Keil, chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water, said “all options should be on the table to punish” South East Water. It is horrible to experience water supply interruption even for a few hours, so to have that for the best part of a week is terrible,” he said.
“South East Water give the impressive they have left control because what we are hearing is that, one problem gets fixed then another problem pops up elsewhere. Is it like whack-a-mole. This creates uncertainty and anxiety for their customers because even those who have had their supplies restored they don’t have confidence that that supply is going to still be there in a few hours or a few days. It is quite clear that the company needs to get a grip.”
PM Sir Keir Starmer said ministers were holding emergency daily meetings over the ongoing outage, which has forced a number of schools in Kent and Sussex to close.
Mr Hinton was grilled by MPs last week for his company’s handling of the November and December supply failure. On Tuesday, Alistair Carmichael, chairman of the Parliamentary Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, said he and his colleagues remained “deeply sceptical” about the supplier’s version of events presented to MPs. The committee has recalled Mr Hinton and the chairman of SEW, Chris Train, to provide further evidence to the committee.
Liberal Democrat MP for Tunbridge Wells Mike Martin has been calling for Mr Hinton to resign for more than a month.
Bottled water stations remain in place in Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead and Maidstone for impacted residents and businesses, and location details can be found on SEW’s website.
A spokesperson for South East Water said: “South East Water remains committed to a remuneration framework that supports a performance culture, and recognises success but does not reward poor performance. The bonus scheme is evaluated by the company’s independent non-executive director-led remuneration committee. The executive directors are not part of this committee and have no say in their remuneration. The bonus scheme is made up of multiple elements, including health and safety factors, an environment programme, and staff engagement.
“We can confirm that no bonus payment was made for operational performance for the year 2024/25. Details of all payments made can be found in our Annual Report on our website.”
On the Ofwat probe, they added: “The company will always fully co-operate with any investigation by our regulators and provide any information required.”
