Our responsible business commitment to create more partnership community projects on water use and vulnerability.
We plan to increase the number of projects each year working in partnership with universities and local charities to engage with our community specifically to support our customers in vulnerable situations and reduce water use. We will develop a partnership project to look specifically at water footprints. A water footprint measures embedded water use, not just the water drawn from the tap.
This supports the WaterUK Public Interest Commitment to make bills affordable (also see our vulnerable customer strategy)
Desired impact – For South East Water to be a stronger part of the community – bring benefits to those involved in the partnership, but also helping meet our strategic business commitments to reduce water use, meet vulnerability needs and improve the environment.
How have we performed?
Engagement
Stakeholder engagement is central to our decision-making and strategy-setting processes. We produce a quarterly newsletter (The Source) to keep stakeholders informed of our activities and relevant issues which helps us to keep in touch and gather valuable feedback. Our insight teams manage regular stakeholder engagement activities and specific programmes with customers, local authorities, charities and NGOs. We organise annual events focused on inclusive and accessible services, inviting delegates from various sectors to improve customer support, share best practice and foster partnerships.
In November more than 200 stakeholders and customers attended our virtual ‘Behind the tap: Your drinking water questions answered’ meeting to find out more about our new five-year investment plan, to share their priorities with us and to ask our CEO and other senior colleagues any questions.
Our stakeholder perceptions audit, sent to 545 stakeholders, highlighted that stakeholders value in-person meetings, workshops and events. As a result, we plan to arrange more face-to-face meetings.
Stakeholder engagement has already begun about our next draft water resources management plan (dWRMP29), with more than 20 stakeholders across the Newhaven, Lewes and Eastbourne area meeting with us for an open discussion about where drinking water will come from in the future. Working at a more local level is a key part of our strategy moving forward.
We continue to support the communities we serve through our annual Community Chest scheme and other support. We’ve distributed £20,000 to good causes in the past year, including schools, a community garden, bowls club, a drop-in centre and a nature-based charity that helps vulnerable children.
Vulnerability
Our Community Partnership Leads help us to link up with organisations across our supply area to raise awareness of our Priority Services Register (PSR) and build trust through community engagement. They attend dozens of community events and sessions promoting other support services for signposting such as Citizens Advice centres, Jobcentres and foodbanks. They also help us to develop important relationships with community groups, councils and other stakeholders.
Vulnerable customers are at the heart of new emergency plans we have developed with Wealden District Council. Key information about care homes, hospitals and other vulnerable non-residential customers has been shared to create a contingency plan that guarantees the delivery of as much drinking water as possible in the event of any disruption to the water supply in the area. This collaborative initiative includes timely deliveries of temporary water tanks, pallets of fresh drinking water, and an injection of water to boost pipelines supplies.
Our PSR numbers have risen strongly again, with 29,583 customers added to reach a total of 130,452. Now, 14.12 per cent of our customers are on the PSR, up from 11.03 per cent 12 months previously. We continue to identify and support more customers through community outreach and data sharing with energy companies.
For the second year running, our services for vulnerable customers have been recognised with the BSI Inclusive Kitemark with zero non-conformities after a rigorous review in January. We have received positive feedback on our final Vulnerability Strategy.
Our annual Vulnerability Stakeholder Conference in February brought together 61 attendees from 45 separate organisations across the charity, utility, housing, financial and community sectors to discuss challenges facing vulnerable customers and access to support. Input from our stakeholders has helped to inform and shape our final Vulnerability Strategy. We have also recruited a new Vulnerability Manager.
In April we launched the new social tariff which applies a tiered discount based on household income, replacing the previous capped approach. This structured system was informed by stakeholder and customer feedback, best practices and benchmarking. Our Helping Hands grants scheme offers financial assistance to customers who demonstrate they are taking steps to achieve financial stability but need help clearing water bill debt which has built up over the years.
In November we launched a new partnership with Kidney Care UK who will refer people they are supporting within our supply area directly through to our vulnerability team so our customers can access better tariffs and any further support we can provide. Colleagues are receiving training on issues such as chronic kidney disease so they have the knowledge and the tools to support customers more effectively.
Water efficiency
We have made a commitment to reduce water usage. One of the tools we use to achieve our goal are partnerships and community campaigns. In 2024/25 these included:
- A partnership with East Sussex County Council to do a door drop of nearly 190,000 properties, with cards containing water efficiency tips and a QR code for more information. This initiative helped us reach digitally excluded customers.
- We took our interactive hydration station to the Eastbourne Airbourne airshow and Kent Show in 2024, offering free water refills into reusable bottles and engaging with over 10,000 customers in the process. As well as answering customer queries, we offered careers advice and helped younger customers learn about water efficiency with our fun ‘pipes and ladders’ game.
- A partnership with Ashford Borough Council in which we gave away 500 water butts to customers on the PSR.
- A campaign to sell water butts at heavily subsidised prices via the Save Water Save Money website and a monthly water butt giveaway as part of a wider communications campaign.
- Our AquaSmart water-saving initiative aimed at educating Key Stage one schoolchildren about how small changes in their homes and schools can help save water and protect the environment. The educational resources include engaging ‘missions’ and downloadable content to make learning fun.
In 2024/2025 we gave away 198,555 free water-saving devices to customers, including leaky loo detection strips and water-saving shower heads. This is 10 per cent more than we gave away in the previous year.
We are ramping up our home and business water efficiency audits. During the home audits, we discuss water usage, fit water-saving devices and fix any internal leaks we find. These visits allow us to also promote a package of support to our vulnerable customers and those struggling to pay their bills by making them aware of our PSR and affordability tariffs.
We continue to engage with farmers and landowners offering help with water storage solutions to make them more resilient in hotter, drier weather. For example, we provided technical advice and grant support to enable a livestock farm in the River Teise catchment to fit 90,000 litres of rainwater harvesting equipment. This eases pressure on our tap network and boosts resilience, but also helps to lower the farm’s water bill while helping prevent soil, nutrients and chemicals running off into rivers during downpours.
