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Following recent water outages caused by a burst pipe, thousands of households will receive water outage compensation. This significant disruption affected many, and South West Water (SWW) is taking steps to address the inconvenience.
South West Water Announces Compensation for Water Outage
South West Water has announced that approximately 13,000 households will be allocated £250 each as compensation for the substantial disruptions experienced with their water supplies in recent days. The compensation for water outage aims to alleviate the inconvenience faced by affected residents.
Compensation Details
The compensation will be directly credited to the accounts of eligible household customers. Business clients will receive separate, individually assessed compensation packages tailored to their specific losses.
Eligible Locations
Households in several locations are eligible for the water outage compensation, including:
- Plymouth
- Tavistock
- Torquay
SWW’s Compensation Policy
SWW informed This is Money that affected domestic customers would receive a guaranteed payment of £50 for every 12-hour period without service, followed by an additional £50 for each subsequent 12-hour period.
A SWW representative stated, ‘This goes beyond the current regulatory amounts of £20 per 12 hours and £10 for each following 24-hour period.’ They also confirmed, ‘The total payment to household customers is £250, with additional details to be sent via letter soon.’
Compensation: Thousands of households impacted by water outages stemming from a burst pipe will receive compensation.
Compensation for Business Customers
Business customers of SWW will receive £100 for every 12-hour period without water and an additional £100 for each subsequent 12-hour period. These payments exceed the standard regulatory amounts of £50 per 12 hours and £25 for each following 12-hour period. The total compensation payment for affected business customers is set at £500, as confirmed by SWW.
Furthermore, businesses have the option to claim additional compensation for significant losses incurred due to the service disruption. SWW has assured that information regarding this additional process will be disclosed to businesses promptly.
‘Gesture of Goodwill’
SWW has described these compensation packages as a ‘gesture of goodwill’, intended to atone for the considerable disturbance.
Cause of the Outage
The water outage, affecting around 13,000 properties in Plymouth and Tavistock, was triggered by a burst pipe on Sunday, April 20. The failure occurred in a large, 600mm diameter pipe responsible for delivering raw water to Dousland Water Treatment Works.
By April 22, approximately 9,500 properties were still without water. David Harris, Managing Director for Water Services at SWW, aimed to restore water to all affected customers by the following morning.
On April 23, South West Water announced that the issue had been resolved and that ‘customers should now have their water supply back.’
According to an SWW spokesperson on said date: ‘We are happy to announce that customers’ water supply should be fully restored and we would like to offer our sincere apologies for the problems this has caused. We also wish to thank our customers for their patience and the kindness they showed to our teams who were on site providing bottled water.’
During the outage, Fred Thomas, Labour MP for Plymouth Moor View, denounced the situation as ‘unacceptable.’