Southern Water CEO issues apology after thousands in Hampshire left without water due to technical fault

Chief executive Lawrence Gosden has responded after an outage at the Testwood Supply Works earlier this week. Customers on the priority list said they received little help from the utility company while the issue was fixed.

This took place in the same week as huge bill increases were announced for Southern Water customers by regulator Ofwat, with people set to see an average of rise of £221 before inflation over the next five years. This would include an average increase of £186 between 2024-2025 and 2025-2026. The company wanted to increase bills by a further 16 per cent - £126 - but the regulator reigned this in.

Councillor Darren Sanders, of Baffins ward, branded the hike as a “disgrace” and said the company should look to cut its profits and bonuses - and stop sewage discharges in the Solent area - before asking customers to foot the bill.

Speaking about the Testwood technical fault - which impacted homes across Hampshire - Mr Gosden said: “I want to apologise personally to the community in Hampshire following the water supply interruption this week, for the huge disruption and inconvenience it caused so many people so close to Christmas. In this note I also set out a commitment to compensate customers, costing £9.7 million, and I promise to review this incident thoroughly and learn the lessons.

“The community served by the Testwood water works has suffered similar interruptions before, and so what happened this week is a repeat for many who live in the area. I understand how disruptive and infuriating this was for all those affected, and I’m very sorry. It was the single biggest water supply incident in our company’s history.

“Testwood serves just over 70,000 homes and businesses, and the consequences of its shutdown over a technical fault were widespread and extremely rapid. Hundreds of Southern Water employees staff responded quickly, mobilising to fix the fault, volunteering to staff bottled water stations, and working round the clock to keep the community informed. Many of them live in the local community or nearby in Hampshire. It was a huge effort. But we failed, and we let our customers down. I want to acknowledge specifically what we got wrong and what we’ll do about it.”

Mr Gosden said 58,000 properties were left without water, and only one bottle station was opened on the first day - which he added was “inadequate”. He confirmed that people on the priority list were “poorly served” and waited too long for deliveries to arrive. Compensation will be given to affected individuals and businesses, and will be approached within the next three weeks.

Mr Gosden added that the technical issue will be fully reviewed to learn any appropriate lessons from it. He blamed static water bills for the lack of investment in critical infrastructure, and did not rule out similar incidents from happening again.

He said: “At Testwood itself over the next 7 years, we’re going to invest a quarter of a billion pounds on improving the site for our customers. The money will be spent on modern equipment, making Testwood efficient and resilient - far less prone to failure. I would end by repeating once more my sincere apology to everyone for the inconvenience and disruption caused by this incident.”