The boss of South East Water (SEW) is set to take home a £400k bonus, despite massive failings spanning several years. Hinton has been running – or failing to run – the water company since 2020.
Earlier this week, the same muppet peddled bullshit about the shitshow of a company needing to increase bills, despite thousands of customers being without running water for weeks at a time. This is despite Ofwat, the water regulator, having banned further bill increases. The company is now appealing against that ban – because apparently the rules shouldn’t apply to them.
Back in December, Mike Martin, MP for Tunbridge Wells, urged Hinton to resign as thousands of residents went more than four days without water.
Then, in the run-up to Christmas, 24,377 residents in Kent went without water for two weeks. The parliamentary environment select committee has since said that it “remained deeply sceptical” about the water company’s version of events.
South East Water scumbag
Now, SEW is set to pay Hinton a £400,000 long-term bonus, “regardless of his performance”. This is if he chooses to ignore calls for his resignation. He will receive the bonus if he stays in position until July 2030.
The bonus is a “service award”. This means no matter how many times or how badly South Easter Water fuck up, he will get paid if he still has the job.
In the year to June 2025, SEW paid Hinton £457,000, which included a £115,000 bonus.
However, SEW is increasing Hinton’s base salary to £400,000. He would also be [eligible](Hinton would also be eligible for a performance-related long-term bonus of up to £600,000 over the five years.) for a “performance-related long-term bonus” of up to £600,000 over the next five years. Of course, given his piss poor performance, you would have thought that would automatically be off the table.
Additionally, South East Water paid Hinton an extra £50,000. They described it as a “cash allowance” to “compensate” him for extra hours related to:
an appeal to the Competition and Markets Authority to allow bills to be raise even higher.
So they’re paying the douchebag £50k more so he can find a bullshit way to charge customers he has repeatedly screwed over, even more?
Gary Carter, a national officer at the GMB union, told The Guardian:
It really adds insult to injury to reward the very person ultimately responsible for failing customers – whilst simultaneously increasing their bills. If David Hinton had a shred of decency, he would hand this money back.
Scandal after scandal
To make matters worse, footage has emerged that appears to show a delivery driver dropping off bottled water to a house without running water. He then took it away again after photographing it.
South East Water says it is “immediately” investigating footage circulating on social media, which appears to show bottled water being delivered to a house, photographed and then removed moments later.
More here: https://t.co/3zPJz1a7BN pic.twitter.com/YiLFEMcibv
— BBC Kent (@BBCRadioKent) January 15, 2026
A South East Water spokesperson said the company had used a third party to deliver the water and was launching an investigation.
Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, has called for the regulator to review the company’s operating licence. Should SEW lose its license, it would enter a special administration until a company decides to purchase it.
If Ofwat decides it has broken its license, it can fine the company up to 10% of its annual turnover.
The smell from South East Waters’ bullshit gets worse and worse every day, and it will continue to do so until the government nationalises our public services. Privatisation has never worked – and the only people who can’t see that are the ones still benefitting from it.
Featured image via HG
By HG
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