Southern Water compensation

Hastings Borough Council is pleased that Southern Water has agreed to offer compensation to residents who were affected by the water outages last May.  

We have been constantly lobbying for residents to be directly compensated ever since tens of thousands of residents were without water for up to five days over the May Bank Holiday. We have held two public meetings where Southern Water heard the anger of local residents and councillors at both the way the water outages were dealt with as well as the sewage bursts and town centre flooding that we have had to suffer as a town. It was at one of these meetings on 11 November, in direct response to a question by Cllr Becca Horn that Lawrence Gosden, the CEO of Southern Water committed to think again about the question of compensation.  

Southern Water executives met councillors and officers on Thursday 6 February to discuss the decision and confirm the plans. 

Cllr Julia Hilton, leader of the council, said: “I’m pleased that after repeated lobbying by councillors, including two public meetings that Southern Water executives attended where I think they were quite shocked at the level of anger in the town, that  Southern Water has agreed to pay compensation directly to residents who were without water for days last May bank holiday. I am also grateful for the work of our MP Helena Dollimore on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee who has also been pushing for direct compensation to residents. 

“We are still in discussion around wider substantial compensation for the town due to the reputational damage caused by the repeated flooding and sewage bursts and sewage spills that our town has suffered over the last four years.  We welcome the investment SW has committed to the town and will be continuing to hold them to account on their delivery on that commitment both on flood prevention and cleaner seas. We have made that clear in our new corporate plan. We want clear timescales and tangible evidence of improvement year on year and will continue to have regular meetings at councillor and officer level with the company to ensure Hastings is getting the best deal from them.” 

Southern Water have agreed to write to all customers who were impacted last May, to provide details of the compensation they will receive. The compensation is in addition to the goodwill fund already committed.