South East Water’s Chief Executive, David Hinton, has surrendered his annual bonus following widespread public and political fury over prolonged water outages affecting thousands of Kent households before Christmas and again in January. The utility’s chair, Chris Train, confirmed the decision to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee this week.

Hinton previously attributed service failures, which left around 25,000 properties without supply for up to a fortnight, to unexpected demand spikes driven by lifestyle changes like increased working from home. The executive admitted to the committee that he “got it wrong” in communicating the crisis to affected customers.

Although the board decided to retain Hinton despite political pressure for his removal, the reputational damage is clear; 54% of affected customers now stockpile bottled water. This incident compounds regulatory scrutiny, as the company was recently slapped with a £22 million fine by Ofwat for prior failures.

Hinton’s waived remuneration, which last year included a bonus component of approximately £115,000 on a total package near £460,000, serves as an admission of poor operational oversight. Regulators have placed the utility on a watchlist for financially at-risk operators.