An executive who oversaw a parasite outbreak in Devon’s drinking water has been hired to run crisis-hit South East Water.
John Halsall stepped down as chief operating officer of South West Water in 2024, just a year after he joined the company, following an outbreak of cryptosporidium, which causes nausea and vomiting, in Brixham, Devon.
The contamination led to 143 confirmed cases, while more than 17,000 homes were urged to boil tap water before use.
Mr Halsall was among the executives at South West Water who gave up their bonuses because of the outbreak in May 2024. He left the business two months later.
He joins South East Water as chief executive as it grapples with a series of crises.
Some 24,000 properties around Tunbridge Wells went without water in December for a fortnight because of an operational failure. In January of this year, there was another major outage.
The company cut off water supplies last month because of the hot weather.
Dave Hinton, South East Water’s former chief executive, came under increasing political pressure to resign and finally did so on May 8 after a damning parliamentary report that claimed the company was “devoid of proper leadership” and “riddled with cultural problems”.
Mr Halsall said: “My priorities are clear: responding to customers’ immediate concerns around their water service – delivering immediately on the short-term improvements we can make both today and over the coming weeks and months.”
He added that he wanted to “rebuild trust” in the provider by overseeing the £2.1bn investment in company’s infrastructure.
South East Water has £1.3bn of debt and is owned by an Australian investment fund, the NatWest Group Pension Fund, and the Canadian bank Desjardins.
However, Feargal Sharkey, the veteran water campaigner, criticised the appointment, calling the hire “typical water industry navel-gazing” in an industry “unaware ... of its own incompetence”.
Mr Sharkey added: “What South East Water needs is God himself to take control because right now only God could possibly save that company.”
While Mr Halsall was at South West Water, he waived his bonus in connection with the cryptosporidium outbreak. However, he did not give up a £190,000 “payment in lieu of notice” on his departure. He also retained long-term share options.
South West Water was fined £1.8m last month because of the outbreak, and the company pleaded guilty to failures under the Water Industry Act 1991. The parasite was traced to a faulty air valve that led animal faeces to enter the water supply.
Mr Halsall was hauled before a parliamentary committee in 2018 during its inquiry into rail transport chaos. At the time, Mr Halsall was managing director for South East Rail and was called on to explain planning and infrastructure failures.
Mr Halsall appointment comes alongside South East Water urging its customers to use water for essential purposes only.
It urged customers on Monday afternoon to pause “all hose use, including for refilling paddling pools, hot tubs and jet washing”.
With the temperature forecast to hit 35C, the utility provider said water should only be used for “hygiene, drinking and cooking”.
South East Water and Mr Halsall were contacted for comment.