South East Water “must act urgently” to significantly improve its performance, a government minister has said.

Rebecca Pow said the company must address issues which meant thousands of households were without water in parts of Kent and Sussex before Christmas.

Ms Pow said the government “will not accept excuses for poor performance”.

David Hinton, chief executive officer at South East Water, said: “We realise the service we provided our customers fell short”.

“We are now focusing on doing all we can to prevent these issues happening again.”

Some businesses and homes were without water for up to a week in December.

South East Water said the problems were due to a rapid thaw after freezing weather, which caused pipes to burst.

Speaking in a Westminster Hall debate, the Tunbridge Wells MP, Greg Clark, said South East Water had “failed in its only purpose”.

He said financial compensation “beyond the statutory minimum” should be paid to those affected and “a wider contribution” should be made by the company “to the whole community”.

He also called for “an urgent plan” to guarantee the security of water supplies against “power cuts, floods or freezing weather”.

Mr Clark said: “If [South East Water] cannot make us confident that this will not happen again they should be removed from this role.”

In response, the minister said the regulator, Ofwat, had written to all water companies to ask them to provide a report by the end of February on their performance during this period.

Ms Pow said Ofwat would assess the responses and take further action.

She has also asked for another meeting with Mr Hinton.

Mr Hinton said: “With regards to compensation, our customers who were affected do not need to do anything, as we are now assessing what compensation levels may be applicable. Customers do not need to contact us to be eligible.”

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