Water supplies restored to thousands of homes in Kent

Thousands of people in Kent have had water supplies restored after an "instrument failure" caused a water treatment works to shut down.

South East Water (SEW) said 7,000 properties around the Tunbridge Wells area faced supply issues over the weekend including low pressure, intermittent supply or no water.

On Sunday evening supplies had been restored to customers in the Tunbridge Wells and Pembury areas, SEW said.

SEW incident manager Steve Benton said: "We are genuinely sorry to all customers in the affected areas who have been experiencing low pressure, intermittent supply, or no water over the weekend.

"This would not normally impact customer supplies, but coupled with the extremely high demand for water during the extended heatwave, it caused our drinking water storage levels to fall to very low levels.

"This is not the service we aim to provide, and is not the service our customers deserve."

Bottled water stations were set up by the company over the weekend in the affected areas.

SEW 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.

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

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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 last 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.

(c) Sky News 2026: Water supplies restored to thousands of homes in Kent