The Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) has today confirmed it has fined Southern Water a total of £20.3m for deliberately misreporting information and delivering poor service to customers.

Southern Water’s shareholders will bear the entire cost of this fine. It will not be passed on to its customers.

-- Advertisement --

Ofwat Chief Executive Regina Finn, said: "Southern Water behaved in deliberately misreporting customer service performance to Ofwat and systematically manipulating information to conceal its true performance over an extended period of time and the company has acknowledged this."

The obligations on the companies to provide accurate and reliable data are designed to protect customers in a monopoly environment. Without a choice of supplier, this protection is essential.

She concluded: "We expect companies to comply with their obligations and this fine sends a clear message that non-compliance is not a cheap or easy option."

(JM)