I know that one of the biggest issues for everyone living in Hastings and Rye is the constant failure of Southern Water, from sewage to flooding to major water outages. That is why I put myself forward to sit on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, a cross-party group of MPs who scrutinise the water industry to find out how these issues can be addressed.
I recently questioned the Chief Executive of Ofwat David Black, the man responsible for regulating Southern Water, about why residents and businesses in Hastings were yet to receive any compensation for the May 2023 water outage which left 30,000 people without water for five days. I believe there has been a failure by Southern Water to follow the Ofwat guidelines that make clear that compensation must be paid when the taps run dry. Indeed, residents have been forced to pay our bill for the days with no water! When I raised this, Mr Black promised to investigate and update me on his findings.
Both the May 2024 incident and the October 2023 outage in Rye and surrounding villages were so disruptive for our community and especially so for our local businesses who lost out on busy weekends.
I have long been campaigning for tougher regulation of Southern Water, whose outages, sewages dumps and leaks have long wreaked havoc on our area. The Water (Special Measures) Bill which is currently going through Parliament will begin to clean up the water industry by banning water bosses from taking bonuses when they fail to meet basic standards. It will also introduce new powers to bring criminal charges against water bosses for persistent lawbreaking. It will require independent monitoring of all sewage outlets with automatic and severe fines - an end to the days of the water companies marking their own homework as we saw under the Conservatives.
I’ll keep holding Southern Water to account at every opportunity I get.
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