Thousands of homes in the South East Water region have been left without water and Kent County Council has declared a major incident following the loss of water supply. South East Water’s initial annoucement on Saturday 10th Jan 2026 at 11:08 a.m. said that “regrettably”, customers in East Grinstead and the surrounding areas would begin to experience no water, intermittent supply or low pressure.

Scottish Water is warning customers the check their pipes as sub-zero temperatures lead to a 30% rise in burst pipes.

Ofwat has asked the water companies in England and Wales to set out their preparations for and response to the mid-December 2022 freeze thaw event – and expressed concerns that “some companies may have failed to support their customers in the manner we would expect.”

Scottish Water has seen the biggest spike in demand on its water network in more than a decade as its response teams battled against a surge in burst pipes caused by sub-zero temperatures and a rapid thaw over the holiday period.

NI Water is reporting an increase of 279% in burst water mains and has set up an incident team to manage the situation as the weather changes and the anticipated thaw arrives.

Water companies have been warned that they must start planning now to avoid potentially significant water supply and environmental impacts next summer.

UK water companies have learned from the winter of 2018 and successfully managed a more challenging freeze-thaw at the start of 2021 with little-to-no customer impact, according to a new report ‘Freeze-Thaw 2020-21’.

Thames Water has set out details of its improvement plan following Ofwat’s review in the aftermath of the Beast from the East - the water company said it will transform its response to unexpected major incidents in future.