South East Water’s boss said he will forgo a bonus this year after recent outages left thousands of customers without drinking water in Kent and Sussex.
South East Water (SEW) chief executive David Hinton, who receives a £400,000 salary, said he has made the decision not to receive any additional “performance” payment for the 2025/2026 financial year.
Mr Hinton also apologised to customers for the “unacceptable outages” in a statement released on Tuesday after his appearance in front of the Parliamentary Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.
Tunbridge Wells saw major supply disruptions in November and December before thousands of properties across Kent and Sussex suffered an outage in January.
Customers were left with no tap water, unable to shower or bathe and could not flush their toilets, while a number of schools were forced to close.
“We recognise the serious impact this has had on our customers and know that we fell short of what is expected of us,” Mr Hinton said.
“In recognition of this, I have made the decision not to accept any bonus for the 2025/2026 year.”
It came after he was grilled by MPs alongside SEW’s chairman Chris Train about their response to the multiple supply interruption.
During the hearing, Mr Train first revealed that Mr Hinton indicated he would surrender any bonus the board may have chosen to pay him this year.
The chairman said: “The performance payment for this year – we have not finalised. But Dave has indicated he is not prepared to take a bonus this year.”
Challenged by the committee chair, Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael, if the board was prepared to give him one, Mr Train appeared to suggest that was not necessarily the case, saying: “No.”
Mr Hinton, who was appointed SEW chief executive in 2020, was paid £457,000 last financial year for 2024/25, including a £115,000 bonus, with some reports saying he will receive a 30 per cent uplift in his basic salary this year.
Mr Carmichael also pressed Mr Train on why the board had rewarded bonuses and increased bosses’ salaries despite years of failings at the firm.
Mr Train replied that the board’s remuneration committee “benchmarks the salaries of the executive in order that we make sure that we are getting the best balance of quality of executive for the organisation”.
Pressed on these executives failing customers and shareholders, Mr Train said: “We are disappointed. Dave has surrendered his bonus, even if we were going to give (one) as a remuneration committee.
“That made the conversation probably a lot easier than it might have been otherwise.”
In a tense exchange later, MPs repeatedly questioned Mr Train on why there had been no changes in the leadership team, highlighting the major failings as well as criticism from the prime minister, shareholders, customers and a whole range of public and private bodies.
Mr Train defended the board’s decisions around governance and leadership, saying: “We have looked as you would expect us to do at what the appropriate leadership of the organisation is going forward.
“The board has given its commitment and its backing to Dave and the executive team going forward as the right solution for delivering what is best for South East Water customers.”
He added that the firm is “bolstering” the executive with a number of external hires that will cover a “broader spectrum of leadership across the organisation”.
Pressed repeatedly on customers no longer having confidence in the company’s leadership, he said: “We are accountable for where we are.
“We as a board, we have to step back and ask the questions that you’re asking. We have to look at the broad context of the organisation.
“We have to look at the context of the industry and the sector and we have to do what we think is best in the best interest of South East Water customers.”
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