Water Supplies: East Grinstead

Josh Babarinde Excerpts

Monday 12th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Emma Hardy]

I completely share the hon. Lady’s outrage. When communication was specifically requested by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary, we asked for that information to be made available to Members of Parliament. A bottled water station was requested—it beggars belief, to be honest. As I have said, Ofwat and the Drinking Water Inspectorate will be looking into this matter. I will be reflecting seriously on the information and reports that both organisations give me.

[Josh Babarinde (Eastbourne) (LD)]

South East Water is failing Eastbourne. It is unacceptable that it left thousands of residents in Sovereign Harbour, Hampden Park, St Anthony’s and Langney without water supply this weekend; it is unacceptable that it refused my ask to set up a water collection station in Eastbourne, forcing residents to travel 35 miles to East Grinstead if they wanted bottled water; and it is unacceptable that many residents who are on the priority services register received absolutely nothing, including no information. Does the Minister agree that South East Water is a busted flush? Does she agree that it is a scandal that water bosses such as Dave Hinton dine out on enormous bonuses, salaries and the rest while failing the residents across our area? Does she agree that Dave Hinton needs to go?

[Emma Hardy]

One of the reasons we introduced the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 and the bonus ban was exactly to ensure that people who get a bonus have earned it and that people who have not earned one do not get one. That seems a pretty straightforward way of doing things in my mind. This goes back to the point made by colleagues across the House that water companies should be talking to Members of Parliament about where they need to put bottled water stations and what is the most effective place for that. Water companies have a statutory duty—it is not just that they can if they want to—to supply water to people in the event of supply outages. Two fundamental things the Drinking Water Inspectorate will look at are how well or otherwise the company has supplied water to people on the vulnerable register and how well or otherwise it has made bottled water available. Quite frankly, I am as outraged by this as the hon. Gentleman.