The leader of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council has formally criticised South East Water after thousands of residents in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were left without water multiple times this winter. Councillor Ben Chapelard has put pressure on the company to address failures at the Pembury Water Treatment Works and the wider distribution network following a series of major supply problems that began in late 2025.
According to KentOnline and local and national reporting, around 24,000 homes lost safe drinking water from 29 November 2025 and were affected into mid-December (the company’s boil-water notice for the area was lifted on 12 December). More problems followed in early January 2026 when cold weather and burst mains left another roughly 6,500 homes without a supply.
The water regulator, Ofwat, opened a formal investigation on 15 January 2026 into whether South East Water breached its customer-focused licence condition — i.e., whether the company provided appropriate support to customers during repeated outages. Reporting by The Guardian and other outlets also notes that regulators had warned of contamination and resilience risks at the Pembury site as early as 2024.
Councillor Chapelard described the situation as “another water catastrophe for our residents and local businesses,” saying Tunbridge Wells and nearby areas were “barely able to function” during the outages. The BBC and other outlets report that South East Water has apologised; the council is pressing for major upgrades and an overhaul of the Pembury treatment works and local network to prevent future shortages.
