Thousands of homes without water in Kent, says MP

Almost 7,000 homes are without water in Kent, a utility company has admitted.

South East Water said a "temporary instrument failure" caused a shutdown at a water treatment works.

The company says a free bottled water station is open at a Tesco superstore in Pembury Road, Tunbridge Wells.

And another bottled water station is set to open shortly.

Tunbridge Wells MP, Mike Martin, said in a post on X that some "8,000 households... in Sandhurst, Pembury and South Tunbridge Wells" were affected.

He said bottled water stations were open until 10pm on Saturday and would be opening again at 7am on Sunday.

He added that households in South Tunbridge Wells and Pembury were unlikely to have water back until Sunday.

Mr Martin said "the cause of the outage" was that a "piece of equipment at Pembury Water Treatment works failed".

South East Water said in a statement: "A temporary instrument failure at our Tunbridge Wells water treatment works caused a brief shutdown.

"While the site is now stable, low storage levels from this disruption and high demand mean we cannot pump water to some areas, particularly on higher ground.

"Consequently, up to 7,000 properties face low pressure, no water, or intermittent supply.

"To ensure a stable, continuous flow, we must allow tanks to replenish, meaning supplies will not return until tomorrow evening at the earliest.

"We continue to deliver bottled water to Priority Services Register customers, and bottled water stations remain open until 22:00, re-opening at 07:00.

"We are very sorry to all customers impacted by this issue."

South East Water customers have endured previous disruption, with homes and businesses in Kent suffering supply failures in late May.

The company has around 2.3 million customers in the South East of England.

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During last winter, there were supply interruptions in Tunbridge Wells and across Kent and Sussex.

The firm said more than 77,000 customers experienced "periods without water supply, low pressure or intermittent supplies" as a result of leaks and bursts across the network and storms causing power cuts.

South East Water is facing a £30.5m redress package for multiple customer service failures, the industry watchdog announced earlier this week.

Ofwat said last Tuesday that the company, which has suffered a series of supply interruptions, would have to foot the bill for its shortcomings along with shareholders, rather than place the burden on long-suffering household bills.

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