UK’s South East Water Faces New Investigation Over Outages

Volunteers distribute bottles of water at a collection point in East Grinstead, on Jan. 13.Photographer: Carlos Jasso/Bloomberg

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By Jess Shankleman

January 15, 2026 at 8:25 AM UTC

Updated on

January 15, 2026 at 9:15 AM UTC

South East Water Ltd. could be fined as much as 10% of its turnover if a new investigation by industry regulator Ofwat finds the UK company breached licence conditions over customer care during recent outages.

Ofwat confirmed it opened the investigation in a statement on Thursday, in addition to a separate ongoing probe into its supply resiliance.