Southern Water’s CEO has been forced to apology and promise £9.7 million in compensation after what he called ‘the single biggest water supply incident in our company’s history.’
Around 58,000 homes, businesses and hospitals in Southampton, Romsey, Eastleigh, Totton and parts of the New Forest experienced a loss of water or low pressure on Wednesday morning.
The fault at Testwood water supply works was fixed on Thursday but supplies were not fully returned to all households until Friday after the storage reservoirs had refilled – meaning some families had been without water for two days.
The disruption came as households served by Southern Water discovered their bills would see the highest increase in the country.
An eye-watering round of water bill increases was announced by regulator Ofwat on Wednesday, despite fury at the performance of operators.
Southern Water customers are being hit hardest with bills going up 53 per cent over the period – and inflation projected to add another 10 per cent.
Southern Water’s chief executive officer Lawrence Gosden, who was handed a £183,000 bonus this year, taking his total pay package to £764,000, apologised for the outage and pledged to compensate residents.
Mr Goshen also promised to invest £250 million over the next seven years to upgrade the Testwood site.
Southern Water and Water for Life workers hand out supplies of bottled water at an emergency water station at Places Leisure Centre, Eastleigh
Large queues formed following a mass water shortage in parts of Hampshire due to a technical fault at the Westwood Water Supply Works
Lawrence Gosden, the CEO of Southern Water, was forced to apologise and offer compensation after what he deemed ‘the single biggest water supply incident in our company’s history’
In a statement, Mr Gosden said: ‘I want to apologise personally to the community in Hampshire following the water supply interruption this week, for the huge disruption and inconvenience it caused so many people so close to Christmas.
‘The community served by the Testwood water works has suffered similar interruptions before, and so what happened this week is a repeat for many who live in the area.
‘I understand how disruptive and infuriating this was for all those affected, and I’m very sorry. It was the single biggest water supply incident in our company’s history.’
Mr Gosden said the company had ‘failed’ in its response to the incident by initially not providing enough water bottle stations and ‘poorly serving’ those on the priority services register.
He added that the company would review the incident but could not rule out future problems because of the ‘ageing infrastructure’ which needed to be modernised.
He said: ‘This badly-needed investment is now coming and is the main reason customer bills are going to rise significantly over the next five years.’
Southern Water says it will be contacting all customers in the next three weeks regarding compensation.
Mr Gosden said: ‘All customers will hear from us in writing in the next three weeks what compensation they will receive.
‘We will apply compensation at the new rates proposed by the Government and being brought before Parliament in the New Year.
‘Even though these may not come into force in law until April, we will use them as the standard.
‘The approximate cost to Southern Water of paying this compensation will be £9.7 million.’
Mr Gosden’s bumper pay packet has attracted controversy as it comes in the face of a business plan that has been subject to harsh criticisms from the industry regulator and a commitment to raise bills more than any other water company.