00:00Thank you, Mr Speaker. I am grateful. Again, no water across parts of Sussex and Kent that is expected to continue at the very least until tomorrow for my area. Again, a shambolic response affecting over 16,000 households in East Grinstead, Ashurstwood and some of my wheeled and villages.
00:20Again, constituents left with poor, misleading or no communication from South East Water, leaving too many vulnerable people, even on the priority services register, waiting. Again, livestock owners struggling to get water for their animals. Many businesses have shut and many schools and nurseries too.
00:41Again, water bottle stations have been poorly organised. Little or no clear provision for hard-hit rural villages areas, forcing residents into long drives with failures to open or running dry far too quickly, creating huge gridlocks, frustration and anger.
01:01Mr Speaker, all unbelievably coinciding with East Grinstead train station as the terminus for Gatwick Airport rail replacement buses, showing a complete lack of joined-up planning.
01:14The LRFs, Mr Speaker, are in place, but the logistics are failing. I ask the Minister, what penalties or sanctions will the water company face?
01:23What level of compensation which my constituents and many constituents deserve will they actually get?
01:31And with multiple and repeated South East Water serious failings in just the last five years, does the Minister agree with me and many?
01:40This water company needs urgent new leadership, capable of properly addressing emergency situations and, crucially, restoring much-needed confidence in South East Water's ability to manage its systems, its infrastructure and water supplies, and ultimately give the service now and in the future.
02:02Mr Speaker, I thank the Honourable Lady, and I completely am with her wholeheartedly in the anger and frustration that she feels on behalf of her residents for once again having problems with this company.
02:15As I have said, yes, the short-term factors were the threes for, but the longer-term factors are the lack of resilience there is with this company and the fundamental problems it has,
02:25which is why one of the things that we need to address this more systemically is looking at setting those resilience standards.
02:31So you move from a maintenance system which is fixed on failure to a proactive system.
02:38But she's quite right in also raising problems around this company.
02:40They're already under investigation from the Drinking Water Inspectorate because of the previous issues in Tunbridge Wells.
02:46The DWI will be doing further investigations, and I've already met with Ofwat to discuss performance, my concerns around performance issues at the company,
02:53and I've asked them to investigate whether or not South East Water is meeting its obligations in serving its customers.
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