Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Southern Water’s compensation fund for losses incurred by (a) residents and (b) businesses during the water outage in May 2024.

The Secretary of State has already met with CEOs of all 16 water companies, including Southern Water, setting out his expectations from government going forward. He will have further conversations with water company chief executives in due course, including with Southern Water, on a range of issues, and will be sure to raise the experiences of those impacted by flooding and supply interruptions and scrutinise their plans to improve.