South East Water’s chief executive, David Hinton, has announced he will step down, just a week after the company’s chair resigned amid widespread criticism over significant supply outages across Kent and Sussex.
Mr Hinton, who has been on the group’s board since 2013, will remain in his role to facilitate an “orderly transition” throughout the summer as the search for his replacement begins.
His departure follows that of chairman Chris Train last week, whose resignation came in the wake of a scathing parliamentary report.
MPs had declared they held “no confidence” in the company’s leadership.
Executives from South East Water have faced intense scrutiny, being “grilled twice” by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Committee regarding their handling of numerous supply interruptions affecting residents in Kent and Sussex.
The Efra committee attributed the firm’s abysmal performance to leadership incompetence and a lack of accountability.
The committee’s report further criticised an inadequate governance framework.
The outages, occurring between November and January, left thousands of customers without access to basic amenities like tap water, showers, or flushing toilets.
In a statement from South East Water announcing Mr Train’s resignation last week, it said it was “mutually agreed that new independent Board leadership is now required to oversee a critical period of positive, transformative change for the company, its customers and local communities”.
Lisa Clement has been appointed as interim chair.
The company further apologised to customers hit by “operational failures”, resulting in a loss of public trust, and added that it “notes” the report by the Efra committee.
It said the company plans to double investment into its water supply network over the next five years.
The Efra committee’s report said: “South East Water presents as a company devoid of proper leadership, riddled with cultural problems that raise serious concerns about the ability of the executive team, led by the CEO David Hinton, to bring the company back into compliance and deliver the services their customers deserve.
“Leadership teams play a major role in how company culture develops; culture change at this scale requires South East Water’s leadership to change.”
The report also called on SEW’s shareholders – Utilities Trust of Australia, NatWest Group Pension Fund, and Desjardins Group and associated holding companies – to hold the company to account.
