Sussex Weald MP criticises South East Water Over Outages

Nusrat Ghani, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Sussex Weald, has strongly criticised South East Water after another wave of severe water outages left hundreds of her constituents with low water pressure or entirely dry taps.

The Core Complaints

• Unacceptable Timing: The disruptions occurred over a July weekend, directly coinciding with South East Water's implementation of a new hosepipe ban across the region. 
• Widespread Outages: Nusrat Ghani MP reported service failures across multiple areas in her constituency, including Heathfield, Crowborough, Broad Oak, Frant, and East Hoathly. About 2,200 properties on high ground in Heathfield alone suffered complete water losses. 
• Imposition of Water Curfews: Despite assumptions that the hosepipe ban would stabilise supply networks, the utility company subsequently issued communications enforcing "water curfews" in Crowborough and Heathfield. [1, 2]
• Failure to Protect the Vulnerable: Ghani raised serious concerns regarding the company's Priority Services Register. She noted that some assisted living complexes received no water, and other vulnerable residents had multipacks of bottled water dumped in physically inaccessible locations. 
• Housing Infrastructure Anxiety: The MP warned that regional plans to build tens of thousands of new homes will only exacerbate an already failing, "creaking" water supply system. 

Demands for Transparency

In statements published via the Sussex Weald Conservatives, Ghani directly targeted South East Water's newly appointed CEO, John Halsall—who took office following the resignation of previous CEO David Hinton over continuous operational failures. 

She demanded that leadership be transparent regarding the true scale of the network crisis and the likelihood of ongoing outages through the summer. She also expressed deep concern over Wealden Council’s "months-long silence" on the issue, warning that the community is "walking into a crisis".