Water chaos boss in line for £400K bonus

Regulator investigating debacle

- BY GRAHAM HISCOTT Business and Consumer Editor and SIMON MURPHY

THE fatcat boss of a water firm that has left tens of thousands of households in the lurch is in line for a £400,000 bonus.

South East Water's David Hinton also pocketed a 30% pay rise last year when customers’ bills leapt by a fifth and was handed a £50,000 perk for pushing through that price hike.

The windfall emerged as industry regulator Ofwat launched an unprecedented investigation into the firm's catalogue of chaos since November, which has caused misery for customers left without supplies for days on end.

If Ofwat finds South East Water has not provided high standards of customer service then the firm could be stripped of its licence and fined 10% of its turnover.