Thriving environment

Our business is intrinsically linked to the environment as we rely on it for our raw product, water. For this reason we do all we can to ensure there is a clean, resilient and sustainable supply available for current and future water customers whilst ensuring there is enough water available to support the needs of the environment too. Click 'Discover More' to find out more from our Head of Environment, Emma Goddard.

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Number of pollution incidents (category 1 - 2)
Number of breaches of abstraction licences, environmental discharge consents
Engaging and working with abstractors to improve catchment resilience to low flows
Bespoke Abstraction Incentive Mechanism (AIM)
Delivery of Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP)
Water Industry National Environment Programme
Protecting wildlife and increasing biodiversity
Engaging and working with landowners
Case studies

Low carbon sustainable business

We’re committed to playing our part to tackle the causes of climate change and transitioning to low-carbon operations, achieving net zero by 2030. Click ‘Discover more’ to find out more from our Carbon Strategy and Economic Manager, Matt Hersey.

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Renewable energy measures
Natural capital accounting
Support the tap water refill campaign to reduce plastic bottled water
Greenhouse gas emissions
Case studies

Securing the future of water

Resilient water resources are needed to ensure we have enough water to supply our customers into the future, while ensuring enough remains in the environment so habitats can thrive. Click ‘Discover more’ to find out more from our Head of Water Resources, Nick Price.

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Company sites protected from risk of flooding
Strategic main – Wellwood to Potters Corner
Risk of severe restrictions in a drought
Leakage
Play an active role regionally in relation to the impact of housing growth
Per Capita Consumption
Case studies

Future ready business

Our people are dedicated to providing you with the best service possible, whether they’re out in the field searching for leaks, managing our operational sites, testing the quality of your water or answering your queries. Each and every person within the business is dedicated to delivering you the safe reliable tap water supply you expect. Click 'Discover more' to find out more from our Head of HR, Sian Jenkins.

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Transparency of reporting
Trusted corporate governance
We are compliant with health and safety regulations
Ensure fair pay, reward and recognition for all our employees
Improving Health, Safety and Wellbeing of our people and communities
Case studies

Our performance, people and planet report

2023/2024

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Read our Service Commitment Plan

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Record temperatures and a hosepipe ban

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Welcome to our 2023/24 performance microsite. Here you can find out about our progress against our 53 stretching targets and measures which are at the heart of our drive to improve our water service to you, protect and enhance the environment, as well as get the most from our talented people.

Alongside these measures are case studies, videos and business updates giving you the stories behind the figures.

You can navigate the site by either using the menu at the top, or scroll down to view our various performance categories.

Our Performance

Community

Community

We’re committed to providing you with a 10 out of 10 service. To do this we need to understand your views and have set out a comprehensive range of satisfaction measures and targets which help us understand how you feel we’re doing. Click 'Discover more' to find our more from our Customer Services Director, Tanya Sephton.

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Leak detection

Business

A safe, reliable supply of drinking water to homes and commercial premises across our region is at the very heart of our business. Click 'Discover more' to find out more from our Regulation and Strategy Director, Oliver Martin.

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Working with farmers

Environment

Our business is intrinsically linked to the environment as we rely on it for our raw product, water. For this reason we do all we can to ensure there is a clean, resilient and sustainable supply available for current and future water customers whilst ensuring there is enough water available to support the needs of the environment too. Click 'Discover More' to find out more from our Head of Environment, Emma Goddard.

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Electric car and charger

Sustainability

We’re committed to playing our part to tackle the causes of climate change and transitioning to low-carbon operations, achieving net zero by 2030. Click ‘Discover more’ to find out more from our Carbon Strategy and Economic Manager, Matt Hersey.

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Ardingly Reservoir

Future of Water

Resilient water resources are needed to ensure we have enough water to supply our customers into the future, while ensuring enough remains in the environment so habitats can thrive. Click ‘Discover more’ to find out more from our Head of Water Resources, Nick Price.

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Staff conference

People

Our people are dedicated to providing you with the best service possible, whether they’re out in the field searching for leaks, managing our operational sites, testing the quality of your water or answering your queries. Each and every person within the business is dedicated to delivering you the safe reliable tap water supply you expect. Click 'Discover more' to find out more from our Head of HR, Sian Jenkins.

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Community

We’re committed to providing you with a 10 out of 10 service. To do this we need to understand your views and have set out a comprehensive range of satisfaction measures and targets which help us understand how you feel we’re doing. Click 'Discover more' to find our more from our Customer Services Director, Tanya Sephton.

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Partnership working

Create more partnership community projects on water use and vulnerability

One of our responsible business commitments is to create more partnership community projects on water use and vulnerability.

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school

Develop a future generation schools programme

One of our responsible business commitments is to develop a future generation schools programme on water.

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Working with stakeholders

Satisfaction of stakeholders in relation to the assistance offered by South East Water

To make sure we’re reaching those customers who need our help in the most appropriate way we work closely with a range of relevant organisations and agencies. Our aim is to reach a satisfaction score of 3.7 out of five with those stakeholders we work with.

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Help for those struggling to pay

Satisfaction of household customers who are experiencing payment difficulties

We understand that for those struggling to pay their water bill it can be a particularly anxious time. So to make sure we’re helping where we can we measure how satisfied customers are with our support and aim to reach a score of 4.3. out of five.

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Household customers receiving financial support

Household customers receiving financial support

We're keen to ensure all our customers receive the support they need when they need it most. During 2020/21 we hoped to reach a total of 47,000 customers signed up to either our WaterSure or Social Tariff.

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Helping customers in vulnerable circumstances

Priority services for customers in vulnerable circumstances

We all need extra support from time-to-time whether it’s due to disability, ill health, age, financial worries or language barriers. Our Priority Services Register (PSR) aims to provide this support.

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Bottled water delivery

Satisfaction of household customers on our vulnerability schemes during a supply interruption

We know interruptions can be distressing, particularly for our customers in vulnerable situations. This is why we want to make sure we’re providing them with the best service possible when these instances occur. Our target for the year is to receive a satisfaction score 3.8 out of five.

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PSR register

Satisfaction of household customers who are receiving, or applying for non-financial support

It's important to us to know that the service we offer those customers who have applied for, or are receiving assistance from us through the Priority Services Register (PSR), are happy with the response they’ve received from us. Our target for the year is to achieve a satisfaction score of 4.2 out of five.

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Meeting our customers

Customer satisfaction

Each year we contact 2,400 customers at random to understand, from your point of view, what we’re doing well and where we can improve, reacting to comments made on a variety of subjects.

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Developer measure of experience

Developer Measure of Experience (D-MeX)

We receive hundreds of requests each year from developers, self-lay providers and NAVs to connect into our water mains network, therefore we want to make sure we’re providing them the best service possible.

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Customer measure of experience

Customer Measure of Experience (C-MeX)

We undertake surveys every three months to gather your views on your experience of us as well as the service we provide you.

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Value for money

Satisfaction with value for money

It's important to us to know whether you feel the service you receive from us, is good value for money. We survey a minimum of 400 customers each year and ask them to rank us out of five in terms of value for money.

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Business

A safe, reliable supply of drinking water to homes and commercial premises across our region is at the very heart of our business. Click 'Discover more' to find out more from our Regulation and Strategy Director, Oliver Martin.

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Licence breaches

We are compliant with other statutory obligations and licence conditions

We expect ourselves to be compliant with all our statutory obligations and licences at all times and to have zero breaches. We define breaches by the number of prosecutions and enforcement actions taken out against us during the year.

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Drone

We are compliant with national security obligations

The security surrounding the supply of water to all our customers is something we take extremely seriously. As one of our Key Performance Indicators, we expect to be compliant with all our security obligations and have zero breaches.

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gap site

Gap sites

Gap sites are those residential properties which are occupied, not billed and are not recorded on our billing database.

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meter

Voids – business properties

Business properties which are void are those which are connected to mains water and/or sewerage systems but are not charged because they are recorded as empty.

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shower

Voids – household

Void household properties are those which are connected to mains water and/or sewerage systems but are not charged because they are believed to be empty.

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Properties at risk of low pressure

Properties at risk of low pressure

It is extremely important to us that you receive a water supply with adequate water pressure behind it. Measured by properties for every 10,000 connections, our target, which is based on previous performance, is to have a maximum of 0.5 properties at risk of low pressure.

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Working at a water treatment works

Unplanned outage of water treatment works

Just as important as maintaining our pipeline network, is maintaining our water treatment assets. We report both unexpected asset failures as well as those when a site is out of service due to planned maintenance and improvement work.

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Laying a new water pipe

Water mains repairs

This outcome measures how many repairs have been made for each 1,000 kilometres of pipeline we operate.

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Interruptions to customers' water supply

Interruptions to customers’ water supply

Despite our ongoing programme to upgrade our infrastructure, burst pipes, site failures or third party damage to our network can sometimes happen.

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Tap water

Taste and odour of water

We want to make sure the water you receive tastes and smells as it should. Our target is to receive less than 0.38 contacts per 1,000 customers.

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Appearance of tap water

Appearance of tap water

It is important that you receive crystal clear drinking water each time you turn on the tap. One of the ways we monitor whether that’s happening is to record the number of times we’re contacted with concerns about how the water looks.

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Bottled water

Event Risk Index (ERI)

Monitored by the Drinking Water Inspectorate, this measure focusses on proactively reducing incident risks relating to water quality.

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Maintenance

Compliance Risk Index (CRI)

Monitored by the Drinking Water Inspectorate, this new measure is focused on maintaining the quality of your treated drinking water.

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Environment

Our business is intrinsically linked to the environment as we rely on it for our raw product, water. For this reason we do all we can to ensure there is a clean, resilient and sustainable supply available for current and future water customers whilst ensuring there is enough water available to support the needs of the environment too. Click 'Discover More' to find out more from our Head of Environment, Emma Goddard.

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res

Number of pollution incidents (category 1 - 2)

As a key guardian of the south east’s environment, we expect ourselves to be compliant with all environmental regulations and to have zero pollution incidents.

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River

Number of breaches of abstraction licences, environmental discharge consents

One of our key aims is to leave the environment in a better state than today so it can be enjoyed for generations to come.

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Working with abstractors

Engaging and working with abstractors to improve catchment resilience to low flows

We are one of many businesses that take water from the environment and we work with local farmers and landowners who also abstract water, to plan how they can be more water efficient benefitting both themselves and the environment.

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Farming

Bespoke Abstraction Incentive Mechanism (AIM)

We see ourselves as guardians of the environment and a key part of that is maintaining and enhancing the natural world around us.

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Arlington Reservoir

Delivery of Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP)

The Water Industry National Improvement Programme is focused on enhancing the natural environment and for this measure between 2020 and 2025 we must deliver 65 improvement schemes.

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Farmland

Water Industry National Environment Programme

The statutory Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP) is centred on enhancing the natural environment and ensuring any water we take does not have a negative impact on the environment.

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Arlington Reservoir

Protecting wildlife and increasing biodiversity

We are committed to providing biodiversity net gains on our sites through our ongoing conservation work during the 2020 to 2025 period.

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Working with landowners

Engaging and working with landowners

In areas of land which have been identified as being at risk of raw water deterioration, our target is to successfully engage with farmers and landowners.

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Sustainability

We’re committed to playing our part to tackle the causes of climate change and transitioning to low-carbon operations, achieving net zero by 2030. Click ‘Discover more’ to find out more from our Carbon Strategy and Economic Manager, Matt Hersey.

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Electric vehicles

Renewable energy measures

Find out about our responsible business commitment to publish our renewable energy measures.

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Canada Geese

Natural capital accounting

We plan to adopt a natural capital approach to ensure we value our impacts and dependencies on nature in the decisions we make.

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Refill campaign

Support the tap water refill campaign to reduce plastic bottled water

our responsible business commitment to support the tap water refill campaign to reduce plastic bottled water.

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Electric vehicles

Greenhouse gas emissions

We are committed to the industry’s ambition to be Net Zero Carbon for operational emissions by 2030.

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Future of Water

Resilient water resources are needed to ensure we have enough water to supply our customers into the future, while ensuring enough remains in the environment so habitats can thrive. Click ‘Discover more’ to find out more from our Head of Water Resources, Nick Price.

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river

Company sites protected from risk of flooding

Making sure our sites can continue to operate following extremes of weather is vital to help ensure the resilience of your water supply. By 2024/25 we have committed to protecting 92 of our sites from flooding with less than a 1/1000 Annual Exceedance Probability.

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Pipelaying

Strategic main – Wellwood to Potters Corner

Our plan to lay a new 15 kilometre long pipeline between our Wellwood and Potters Corner water storage tanks will enable us to pump more water into the Ashford area. The new water main is due to be fully commissioned by September 2026.

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Arlington Reservoir during prolonged dry weather

Risk of severe restrictions in a drought

Dry weather (or a drought) is a natural event which happens when a period of prolonged low rainfall creates a water shortage. Our target for 2020/21 is to have zero customers impacted by a 1-in-200 year drought.

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A leak on a water pipe

Leakage

We are committed to reducing the amount of water lost to leaks both on our network, and in customers’ homes, by 15 per cent between 2020 and 2025.

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cup

Play an active role regionally in relation to the impact of housing growth

Our responsible business commitment is to play an active role regionally in relation to the impact of housing growth on water.

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Shower

Per Capita Consumption

By 2025, we are targeting the annual amount of water used by each of our customers to reduce from 143.1 litres a day in 2019/20 to 131.5 litres a day.

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People

Our people are dedicated to providing you with the best service possible, whether they’re out in the field searching for leaks, managing our operational sites, testing the quality of your water or answering your queries. Each and every person within the business is dedicated to delivering you the safe reliable tap water supply you expect. Click 'Discover more' to find out more from our Head of HR, Sian Jenkins.

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Staff member in hi-vis at a control panel

Transparency of reporting

Our responsible business commitment is to create transparency of reporting as we know this matters to our customers and stakeholders and that they can trust us.

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A conference presentation

Trusted corporate governance

Our responsible business commitment to trusted corporate governance

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The building of a new water treatment works

We are compliant with health and safety regulations

As one of our Key Performance Indicators, our target was to have zero breaches during 2020/21.

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South East Water staff member in company van

Ensure fair pay, reward and recognition for all our employees

Our responsible business commitment to  ensure fair pay, reward and recognition for all our employees.

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Mental health conference

Improving Health, Safety and Wellbeing of our people and communities

Our responsible business commitment to improve the health, safety and wellbeing of our people and communities.

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