South East Water could lose operating licence after outages in Kent and Sussex

Fine of 10% of annual turnover among other potential penalties as environment secretary calls for Ofwat review

South East Water could lose its operating licence after residents across Kent and Sussex faced up to a week without water.

The environment secretary, Emma Reynolds, has called for the regulator to review the company’s operating licence. If it were to lose it, the company would fall into a special administration regime until a new buyer was found.