The Guardian1 Jun 2026Market
Automatically composed with AI from the cited sources
From the late-May bank holiday Monday, thousands of Kent homes lost water supply for the entire week during the hottest week of the year so far; South East Water attributed the outage to a defective pump at Charing and a demand spike, while vulnerable residents queued at water stations, priority deliveries failed, and businesses in Whitstable were forced to close. Customers in Kent pay some of the highest water bills in the country, while the company reports millions in profit, according to the letter writer. A similar multi-week outage hit Tunbridge Wells in January due to a Pembury treatment works issue.