Nigel Farage is at the forefront of calls for the head of South East Water to resign as 23,000 households continue to face water shortages.

The company’s chief executive, David Hinton, who earns an annual salary of £400,000, has issued an apology but remains steadfast in his position. Hinton has expressed empathy by stating he ‘feels customers’ pain,’ yet he has not stepped down.

Since Saturday, numerous homes across Kent and Sussex have experienced either a complete lack of running water or severely limited access.

This crisis has forced schools and nurseries to shut their doors, disrupted businesses, and left families dependent on emergency water distribution centers.

Communities still struggling with dry taps include East Grinstead, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Ashford, and Sevenoaks.

Regulator Ofwat is actively investigating and considering ‘further action’ – while several MPs and councillors have said Mr Hinton, who bagged an additional £115,000 bonus last year, must go.

Mr Farage said yesterday: ‘Dave Hinton has presided over a culture of failure at South East Water for too long.

‘It’s time he took responsibility and resigned.’

David Hinton, the chief executive of South East Water, is facing growing calls to resign

Nigel Farage led calls for the South East Water boss to step down

A woman collects bottled water from an emergency water distribution point on January 12 in East Grinstead

He threw his support behind a letter from Kent County Council, held by his party Reform UK, that slammed the ‘systematic and repeated failures’ Mr Hinton has overseen.

Council leader Linden Kemkaran said: ‘Kent has suffered one too many water outages and I’m afraid that heads must roll.’

She added that finding a permanent solution to the problems ‘must begin with accountability at the highest level and a significant change in approach and to the leadership’.

Six MPs from across the political spectrum co-signed a letter to Ofwat insisting South East Water (SEW) must not be allowed to ‘get away’ with its handling of the crisis.

Mr Hinton has also dodged several media interviews, with the Today programme repeatedly calling him out for ignoring their requests and MPs quizzing him this month about not speaking to the media during December’s outage.

In Kent, some locals have resorted to collecting rainwater in buckets and bins in order to flush their toilets – and described the situation as ‘apocalyptic’.

Vikki Chalk told the BBC: ‘It dawned on me I could line up the few buckets I had to start gathering more for flushing! My heart goes out to large families with young kids; it must be impossible.’

Others have vowed to stop paying their water bills.

Traffic signs at a water collection point in East Grinstead

Bottled water is loaded into a car at an emergency water distribution point in Tunbridge Wells

SEW has blamed the chaos on the impacts of Storm Goretti as well as a power cut at one of its pumps.

The supplier said its teams are working around the clock to carry out repairs and has apologised.

Customers in Sussex should see water suppliers back up and running today, it said, but no firm deadline was given for Tunbridge Wells. 

In an ‘unprecedented move’, SEW bosses, including Mr Hinton will be hauled back to parliament to answer further questions about outages in the run-up to Christmas. 

They appeared before the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee earlier this month when Mr Hinton said the water company was ‘absolutely dedicated’ to fixing the network’s resilience problems and apologised.

The Drinking Water Inspectorate has launched an investigation into the company.

Incident manager, Matthew Dean, yesterday apologised and pointed to the recent cold weather.

He explained it had caused a spate of leaks and bursts across the area – meaning drinking water and storage tanks were running low.

He said: ‘Water supplies to Loose in Maidstone, Blean near Canterbury, Headcorn, West Kingsdown, and parts of Tunbridge Wells have been restored. 

A bottled water distribution point in East Grinstead on Monday

A worker hands over bottled water at a water station in East Grinstead, after bad weather was blamed for more water outages in Kent and parts of Sussex

Mr Dean added: ‘Our customer care team is delivering bottled water to the customers on our priority services register who are most in need.

‘We are also supporting hospitals with tankers and providing bottled water for care homes, schools, medical care providers and to support livestock.’ 

An Ofwat spokesperson said on Tuesday: ‘We are concerned that residents in Kent and Sussex are without water again, and are working closely with the Drinking Water Inspectorate, which is the lead regulator for this latest supply interruption, to ensure that regulation and enforcement is aligned.

‘Ofwat already has an active investigation into South East Water related to its supply resilience, and we have met with the company to discuss these latest incidents as part of that investigation.

‘We will review all of the evidence before taking a decision on what further action may be required into whether the company has met its legal obligations set out in its licence relating to customer care, including with further potential enforcement action.’

South East Water has been approached for comment.