MP for water outage-stricken area calls for Ofwat to be “ripped up”

Sutton and Cheam MP Luke Taylor has hit out at the water regulator Ofwat after people across Sutton and Cheam faced a major water outage over several days following a fault at a local treatment plant operated by SES.

The outage, which began on Monday, affected up to 20,000 people at its peak and SES say that supply levels are only due to be fully restored today (19th December).

It comes on the same day as the regulator is under fire for presiding over a rise in water bills– with the Liberal Democrats calling for it to be scrapped altogether.

Luke Taylor MP lobbied SES on behalf of his constituents to move further and faster to provide updates, fix the problem and provide more bottle stations in the constituency.

Luke Taylor MP for Sutton and Cheam said : 

“People in Sutton and Cheam have been utterly let down by Ofwat this week.

“Many of us are paying through the nose on our water bills, only to face a major outage like this. It is not good enough and we all deserve so much more. 

“SES moved too slowly in setting up bottle stations in Sutton and Cheam so that people could access water, and they clearly were not able to cope with the amount of requests for new information they had.

“Rest assured that I will be pushing for clear answers from SES on why this fault occurred, why their response has been so patchy, and why it has taken so long to be fixed.

“Whilst I’m encouraged to see forecasts that say SES bills will not rise like others, people in our area also pay Thames Water bills, which we have heard today are going to go up by £152 over the next five years overall.

“And let’s be clear – ultimately Ofwat are responsible for letting water companies off the hook on the underinvestment and bad management that led to situations like the one we face this week. 

“That is why I urge the government to finally rip up Ofwat and replace it with a new, effective regulator to hold water companies accountable, and introduce a single social tariff for water bills to help eliminate water poverty.”