As regulators told South East Water repeatedly and jointly for over four years, the company needed to invest in new infrastructure to be properly resilient to potential shocks. In particular, single points of failure, supply shortfalls and regional connectivity should have been improved, but the company failed to take action on these well-known long-standing issues for many years. Spending allowances in previous price reviews may have made trade-off decisions more challenging, but ultimately,...

As regulators told South East Water repeatedly and jointly for over four years, the company needed to invest in new infrastructure to be properly resilient to potential shocks. In particular, single points of failure, supply shortfalls and regional connectivity should have been improved, but the company failed to take action on these well-known long-standing issues for many years. Spending allowances in previous price reviews may have made trade-off decisions more challenging, but ultimately, these decisions are primarily the responsibility of the company, which should have seen the role that poor infrastructure played in events since at leas Type: conclusion | Number: 4 | Response status: response_pending