Beleaguered water firm announce new boss

South East Water (SEW) has announced a new chief executive after its previous boss resigned. The heavily criticised water company said that John Halsall will take over from David Hinton, pending regulatory approval. Halsall has previously worked for Thames Water, South West Water and Network Rail.

The water firm announced John Halsall as Chief Executive Officer (CEO)-Designate, with immediate effect.  David Hinton, who had previously announced his resignation, will leave the business after a period of handover.

The firm say John brings over 35 years of operational and executive leadership experience, having spent his career working in public and private sector infrastructure organisations including South West Water, Network Rail and Thames Water. John served on the Board of South West Water, was COO at Pennon Group, and an Executive member of Network Rail, where he ran rail infrastructure in the South East of England.

He has extensive experience of delivering transformation programmes while directing operations, asset management, capital delivery, and setting strategic direction to drive strong performance.

Tens of thousands of SEW customers lost water supply or had low pressure in incidents in November, December, January and May.

Regulator Ofwat recently proposed fining the firm £22m over issues affecting 286,000 people in Kent and Sussex between 2020 and 2023.