SE Water Boss David Hinton “Set for New Pay Rise” after 47% Increase

On February 3, 2026February 3, 2026 By southboroughnewsLeave a comment

The “Dry Wells Action” Tunbridge Wells community group has condemned Monday’s decision of the board of South East Water to keep its chief executive, David Hinton (pictured below), in post and says it now expects him to be given another pay rise in April.

Jonathan Hawker who’s Chairman of “Dry Wells Action” says he’s identified that David Hinton is being paid an extra £50,000 so-called “cash allowance” to deal with regulators probing the company’s activities. That’s on top of a 30% increase in David Hinton’s basic salary last April from £307,000 to £400,000 a year.

Jonathan Hawker (pictured below centre) says that effectively gave Mr Hinton a 47% increase in annual pay for the current year at a time when the company increased consumer bills by 20%.

In a statement, South East Water told Southborough News: “South East Water remains committed to a remuneration framework that supports a performance culture, and recognises success but does not reward poor performance.”

The SE Water statement continued: “The remuneration committee, led by independent non-executive directors, approved a 30.2 per cent increase in the base salary of the CEO. This is detailed on page 165 of our annual report, and page 166 details the cash allowance provided to each director in relation to the CMA process. We can confirm that no bonus payment was made for operational performance for the year 2024/25.”

Jonathan Hawker of “Dry Wells Action” said: “David Hinton should not be rewarded for his repeated failing. Dealing with regulators is obviously part of the day job of the chief executive of any regulated company, so why is the Board giving Hinton more just to do something he would be doing anyway?”

Six MPs have now demanded the removal of David Hinton.

Helen Whately MP for Faversham and Mid Kent (pictured above), said she was furious that the company’s Monday board meeting resulted in a decision to stand by Mr Hinton.

She said: “It’s a kick in the teeth [for] all those people who had days without water, not least all those vulnerable householders who were left without emergency supplies, along with livestock, businesses and schools.

Helen Whately concluded: “I have no confidence in the current leadership to turn South East Water around. The Chief Executive will keep on enjoying his six figure salary into the foreseeable future. It’s a disgrace.”

South East Water is due to hold its annual general meeting later this month after announcing a further 7% increase in water bills for the coming year.

A dispute between South East Water and OFWAT over the company’s 5-year business plan to 2030 is being considered by the competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority. The CMA is due to announce its findings in March.

Jonathan Hawker of “Dry Wells Action” said the £50,000 “cash allowance” for Mr Hinton was “buried in the company’s annual report” and was “wholly inappropriate”. It is not categorised by SE Water as either pay or bonus.

South East Water said the extra £50k was put in place to recognise the additional hours which Mr Hinton would need to devote to dealing with the water regulator, OFWAT.

Jonathan Hawker said: “What we really need is for Chris Train, South East Water’s chairman, to get a grip, stop rewarding failure, and replace Hinton immediately with someone who can do the job and announce urgently a plan to sort out the problems faced here in Tunbridge Wells and beyond.”

Jonathan Hawker continued: “South East Water has made no announcement of any plans to address the issues here and has avoided public debate.”

According to “Dry Wells Action”, under David Hinton’s five years of leadership, SE Water has gone from an annual profit of £37.7m to a loss of £19.8m last year. Its borrowings now exceed £1.3bn. The company has paid £249m in dividends to shareholders over the past decade.

Expert is “Horrified” by Tunbridge Wells Water Systems

On January 26, 2026 By southboroughnewsLeave a comment

A chartered geologist has criticised a lack of board level technical expertise at South East Water, as investigations continue into how the taps ran dry in Tunbridge Wells in recent weeks.

The geologist with long experience in the water supply industry is Charles Hedges (pictured below) and he spoke to the Southborough News YouTube channel last week.

Charles Hedges said: “What I don’t understand is that you have a (South East Water) board with … no chartered engineer, chartered chemist, or chartered microbiologist. I find that very odd.”

He continued: “I’m worried about the lack of technical expertise in the area of a chartered civil engineer who understands water supply, a lack of a chartered chemist who understands water process treatment, and I’m worried about a lack of chartered microbiologist, who understands microbiology”.

Charles Hedges also stated: “Pembury has had a potential issue with bacteria, so … there should be a director of microbiology on the board.”

South East Water told Southborough News in a statement that it would be investing in improving the Pembury water treatment works over the next five years.

South East Water also provided a list of professional qualifications obtained by its current eight-member board of directors. This states that one of its non-executive directors, Caroline Sheridan, is a chartered civil engineer, while Mark McArdle is a “Master of Chemistry.” But there was no sign of expertise in microbiology.

The board has 4 people with accountancy and commerce backgrounds. The independent Chair, Chris Train, is a Chartered Engineer, while Chief Executive David Hinton has worked at South East Water for more than 25 years having studied for a degree in Biotechnology.

The interview with Charles Hedges is included in a comprehensive video report on the public meeting at the Old Auction House in Tunbridge Wells held last Wednesday, which was organised by the newly formed “Dry Wells Action” group.

Here is a link to view the half-hour report on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlhXewN4Go4

“Dry Wells Action” was founded by Jonathan Hawker (pictured below at the meeting), who told us “absolute rage” caused him to start the group.

Neither South East Water or any of the regulators said they were able to attend the meeting due to the continuing investigations into the company’s performance.

Jonathan Hawker stated: “It was the third time we lost water completely in our household. We had the incident a couple of years ago, around Christmas. We had the incident at the end of last year before Christmas.”

Jonathan Hawker continued: “We thought we were through it. We weren’t, and after, you know, almost a week of intermittent water, it just went completely and I just had had enough, really.”

He added: “And so I decided that I would launch a campaign group – and campaign for a resilient water supply for Tunbridge Wells, and that’s what I’ve done.”

Here is the group’s website link: https://www.drywellsaction.com/

More than a hundred residents attended the meeting last Wednesday despite an evening of heavy January rain.

In other comments, geologist Charles Hedges told Southborough News that the lack of up-to-date real time monitoring of water inflows into the Pembury reservoir: “quite frankly horrifies me, bearing in mind, this is a town of, what, 70,000 people.”

Charles Hedges thinks the Pembury site should have been updated more than 20 years ago.

In response, South East Water sent Southborough News this statement from the Chief Executive, David Hinton:

“Our priority is improving South East Water in the future. We are strategically focused on our Business Plan and committed to delivering the infrastructure investment needed. This will improve our resilience as we face the challenges of climate change and population growth.

“We have a large capital investment programme planned over this five-year period (2025-2030), and Pembury water treatment works is part of that programme. In advance of this full refurbishment, a number of improvements and changes are being made at the site in line with the current regulatory notice. Some of these are complete, and others are still ongoing, all of which are in line with the regulators’ timescales.”

David Hinton continued: “My focus has been, and always will be, to lead South East Water into the position it needs to be to face the challenges all water companies in England and Wales have.

“Those challenges include climate change, growth in population and the urgent need for investment in our ageing infrastructure.

“Our Business Plan sets out how we will do this. It’s an ambitious plan and it is a robust plan.

“There is a lot to do to make sure South East Water has the resilience it needs to make sure our customers have the service they not only expect, but deserve.

“We apologise sincerely for the supply issues our customers have had. A combination of factors has meant we have not been able to provide the continuous, uninterrupted tap water service our customers rightly expect.

“We will always work with our regulators and stakeholders to make improvements and are transparent in everything we do.

“We have the expertise and dedication in our teams at South East Water and we will use innovation and technology to improve our service.”

You can also listen to the audio of the half-hour of interviews by downloading the West Kent Talking podcast.

Among those others who spoke to Southborough News on the video were local business owner Matthew Sankey, Marianne Amos from “Dry Wells Action” and a Liberal Democrat borough councillor representing Pantiles, Jamie Johnson. The piece ended with the views of local residents Jerry Bolton and Christopher Jackson.