Turnaround Plan 2023–25 Page 1
Turnaround Plan
2023–25
6579_04/23
April 2023
Introduction
We know our performance is not
yet good enough, and we have an
ambitious plan to address this,
focused on the operational turnaround
of the company.
Our Turnaround Plan will deliver a short sharp
ambitious improvement by 2025, particularly in
terms of our environmental performance.
It includes four clear outcomes that we’re
promising to deliver, improving our service
to customers and the environment.
It will take time, however, to materially reduce
storm overflows. For this we need to redesign
how the entire sewage system works. We’ve been
working hard with our partners in the community to
make a start on this, and have advanced plans which we’ll
announce in May 2023.
My new executive team and I are also developing our five-year plan from
2025–30, and testing that with customers to make sure we balance the cost of
these improvements with keeping customers’ bills aordable. It will deal with
important areas such as storm overflows, river water quality and decarbonising
the water industry.
We’ve already made huge changes to our business, improving transparency and
embedding a new culture centred around a Code of Ethics that is driving our
day-to-day decision-making. Our new shareholders have invested significantly in
the company, helping us to accelerate improvements, exceeding the allowances
provided by our regulator.
We know these plans are ambitious, however, we have 2,500 dedicated
scientists, engineers and industry professionals working for Southern Water.
They are all committed to making this plan a reality. We’ll be reporting on
progress every six months through to 2025.
Lawrence Gosden, Chief Executive Ocer.
Safeguarding resources and making sure our customers have access
to a supply of high-quality water now and into the future.
Empowered and supported colleagues
Trusted and easy customer service
Healthy rivers and seas
A reliable supply of water for our customers
We are committed to delivering:
Protecting and improving the environment, working transparently to
enhance inland and coastal habitats.
Supporting our customers with easy service and transparent
communications that show we care for our communities.
Enabling our people to work in a safe, collaborative and inclusive
workplace that oers rewarding careers at the heart of our communities.
With the help of these enablers:
People and culture
Investing in our people through training at all levels and competitive career
choices, aligned to our culture to business outcomes.
Value for money
Challenging our own decisions, operations and supply chain to drive value
and spend every pound wisely.
Digitalisation and technology
A responsive, connected network and processes that support our operations
to act faster and deliver more eectively for our customers.
Turnaround Plan 2023–25 Page 2
Empowered
and supported
colleagues
Trusted and easy
customer service
Healthy rivers
and seas
A reliable supply
of water for our
customers
3rd quartile performance
against our peers
Improved water quality
that shows our commitment
to excellence.
A reliable supply of
high-quality water for our
customers across our
region and a commitment
to continue to address
the challenges climate
change presents.
Healthy rivers and seas
across our region.
This includes inland and
coastal habitats and
ecosystems in which
we operate.
We’re making informed
and trusted decisions.
Our communities
feel supported through
easy engagement
and service.
An ethical company
with a safe, collaborative
and inclusive work
environment. One that
enables rewarding
careers at the heart of
our communities across
the South East.
3 star performance awarded
by the Environment Agency
Environmental Performance
Assessment rating that clearly
shows our commitment to
healthy rivers and seas.
7.5/10
Our commitment to improve
our customer experience for
all our consumers.
0.2
Lost-time injury rate which
highlights our commitment to
health and safety excellence.
Our Turnaround Plan
The actions we’re taking to drive improvement Where we’ll be by 2025 What you’ll see by 2030
Turnaround Plan 2023–25 Page 3
Improving the reliability of our water supply works by putting in place new assets and improving maintenance.
This includes the complete overhaul of our four main sites, benefiting 62% of our customers.
Using digital technology to build next-level smart networks with new technology, including sensors, smart meters and
artificial intelligence to reduce leakage and enable our teams to respond more quickly.
Upgrading our logistics capability so we can move people and materials around faster, 24/7. This includes a new
tanker fleet, storage of critical spares and an overhaul of our work management processes.
Improving the management and control of our sites and networks through applied manufacturing thinking
we are improving our core systems and processes.
Building capacity and resilience at our wastewater treatment works to reach 99%+ compliance with treatment and permit
standards. This means making sure our pumping stations and networks continue to operate eectively as our climate changes.
Making sure our assets work to capacity. Updating our maintenance standards and proactive control to stop
assets failing, and developing an improved emergency response.
Better engagement with our communities through improved multi-channel and direct communications, education
programmes and regular stakeholder forums.
Supporting customers in vulnerable situations by improving our priority services during incidents and our social tari oering.
Managing our compliance through new systems, inspections and assurance.
Improving the safety of our colleagues with the introduction of a new mobile risk safety app.
Supporting our colleagues through our Inspire Academy, internships and a graduate programme
to make sure we upskill and develop each individual.
Working with care to embed health and safety as a key way of working with upskilling, training
and onboarding programmes.
Digitalising our sewer network to reduce pollutions and flooding, using industry-leading monitors, artificial intelligence
for prediction and maintenance.
Improving training, development and productivity by upskilling our front-line colleagues. Making sure they
are multi-skilled and externally accredited to deliver the service our customers expect.
Making things easier for our customers by improving the on-line experience and creating a new website, improving
customer journey, data quality and complaints process. We’ll also introduce a video assistant for customers.
Creating a customer culture. Making sure that every colleague understands our customers and their unique needs.
This includes the introduction of customer promises and customer service training for all colleagues and partners.
A reliable supply of water for our customers
Objective: Provide reliability and quality
reaching 3rd quartile for quality by 2025.
Our key focus areas We’re committed to improving the reliability and quality of our water by…
Several of our sites and areas of our network have
become less reliable because of their age and
design. Our plan includes improving them, and this
work has started. Our plan focuses on the necessary
fixes at our largest sites.
We’re taking a proactive approach to inspection
and maintenance, and thishas helped us to draw
up detailed plans for our four biggest sites and 20
smaller ones. These plans answer our notices from
the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI). We’re confident
they are realistic and deliverable.
We understand the opportunities that new
technologies present us with to improve the
management of our network, and we’re installing
monitors and sensors on our network. We’ll continue
to invest in systems and tools that help us to maximise
the data available, so we can find and fix more leaks
faster and make our networks more ecient.
We’ve also invested to improve our logistics capability,
with a fleet of new tankers delivering water and parts
and spares where they are needed most. We have
also increased our stores of parts and spares to make
it easier for our teams to quickly access what they
need, when they need it. All ofthis is supported by
new management systems and processes so we can
improve our management of risks.
2022
Q4 Q1 Q1 Q1Q2 Q2Q3 Q3Q4 Q4
20252023 2024
Using digital technology to build next-level smart networks with new technology, including sensors and smart meters to
reduce leakage and enable our teams to respond more quickly.
Upgrading our logistics capability so we can move people and materials around faster, 24/7. This includes a new tanker
fleet, storage of critical spares and an overhaul of our work management processes.
Improving the management and control of our sites and networks through a constant review of our core systems and processes.
Improving the reliability of our water supply works by putting in place new assets and improving maintenance.
This includes the complete overhaul of our four main sites, benefiting 62% of our customers.
Turnaround Plan 2023–25 Page 4
Deliver 103 projects at our four largest water supply works through the investment of £150m
Tactical investment at 20 sites to improve reliability and output by 50ML/d
Complete our most ambitious reservoir inspection programme
Deliver smart water meter improvements
Complete the pressure management and programme to support
leakage and network resilience
Roll out of our new GIS location and asset register system, enabling improved systems across our water networks
Continually improving the use of our six in-house 24/7 water tankers
Increase our logistic stores to eight to enable improved response in and out of hours
Deliver tactical improvements to our end-to-end work management processes
Roll-out of a new risk assessment approach to enable safe control of
work on our assets
Investing in key improvements
Roll-out of new contracts and ways of working to improve customer management and operational response
Improve our process for finding and fixing leaks – we’ve already improved our fix
rate by 30% since summer 2022
Reset all notices to improve delivery confidence with
our regulator
Healthy rivers and seas
Objective: Improving our environmental
performance and reach a 3 Star EPA rating.
Our key focus areas We’re committed to improving our waste and environmental performance by…
We know that we haven’t alwaysmet our
customers’ expectations in terms our environmental
performance. We’re committed to changing that
and we’re focused on increasing the capacity and
resilience of our sites and networks.
To achieve compliance with treatment and permit
standards, we’re investing in upgrades across our
region, improving our treatment works, pumping
stations and our networks. This is crucial as we
manage the impacts of our changing climate.
We know that when our sites and networks fail, this
has a negative impact on the environment, and that is
unacceptable. To limit our impact, we’re revising and
updating our maintenance standards and processes.
We’re introducing proactive controls that can spot
failures before they happen. This is particularly
important in terms of managing power availability.
We’re also improving our emergency response.
Our sewer system needs to be modernised to reduce
pollution and the risk of flooding. We’re digitalising
our networks, using industry-leading monitors and
utilising artificial intelligence to predict failures and
plan maintenance.
Our employees are our most valuable asset, and we’re
dedicated to providing them with the tools and training
they need to succeed, so we’re able to provide
the best possible service to our customers and the
environment.
2022
Q4 Q1 Q1 Q1Q2 Q2Q3 Q3Q4 Q4
20252023 2024
Turnaround Plan 2023–25 Page 5
Deliver our ‘Go To Green’ programme – £25m of tactical interventions at 45 sites to make sure our treatment works
reliably meet standards
Make sure our works are able to treat required flows, as described in our permits, through strategic investments and tailored initiatives
Reduce the number of spills from storm overflows to fewer than 18 by removing excess surface water from our systems
Restructure our control room so we can spot failures before they happen and, when they do, respond faster
Increase the durability of our sites and networks by upgrading 52 pumping stations, increasing resilience at over 700
pumping stations to allow them to reset automatically and investing over £40m on new pumps and control systems
Prevent wastewater escaping from our network by cleaning over 700km of sewers a year and installing over 80 new devices to
reduce bursts through more eective pressure management
Digitalise our network by installing 23,000 sewer level monitors and 1,300 Event Duration Monitors to allow us to predict spills
and network issues before they happen
Reduce the number of flooding incidents by having greater visibility of flows through our network. We’ll do this by using
Artificial Intelligence and case managing flooding hotspots on our network
Improve the accuracy and eciency of our spill reporting by automating processes and
using artificial intelligence
Apply externally accredited training expertise with practical upskilling programmes for all Operators and Technicians,
together with technical training for all managers, scientists and engineers
Improve eciency through better logistics management
Deliver planned preventative maintenance to improve the reliability of
our sites and networks
Building capacity and resilience at our wastewater treatment works to reach 99%+ compliance with treatment and permit standards.
This means making sure our pumping stations and networks continue to operate eectively as our climate changes.
Making sure our assets work to capacity. Updating our maintenance standards and proactive control to stop assets failing,
and developing an improved emergency response.
Digitalising our sewer network to reduce pollutions and flooding, using industry-leading monitors, artificial intelligence for
prediction and maintenance.
Improving training, development and productivity by upskilling our front-line colleagues. Making sure they are multi-skilled
and externally accredited to deliver the service our customers expect.
Trusted and easy customer service
Objective: Provide a great customer experience
and reach a 7.5/10 C-Mex score (8% increase).
Our key focus areas We’re committed to improving customer experience and our reputation by…
Our website doesn’t allow customers to interact with
us in the way they would expect. We also haven’t
always used customer data and analytics eectively
to inform improvements to our services.
This is why we’re investing to improve our customer
experience. We plan to reduce processing and wait
times, share customer insights with colleagues and
continue to improve services for all our customers. Our
new website will be a part of this and is supported by
process, data and analytical improvements behind the
scenes.
Our colleagues and those who work with us via our
supply chain are at the heart of providing a trusted
service to customers. We know that our approach and
support for colleagues could be better coordinated, so
we’re improving communication and training.
Being a part of our communities is central to our
decision-making and we know that we have not
alwaysbeen great at keeping ourcustomers and
stakeholders updated about the work we’re doing.
That’s why we’re investing in a new education
programme and improving our communications, so we
can help our customers to understand the work we do
and how they are impacted.
We’ve always supported our customers who find
themselves in vulnerable situations, and this year
we extended our social tari scheme. We want to
go further, and we’ve been working with other water
companies to update our plans. We want to improve
access to ourpriority services and increase the
number of customers on our register so we can oer
more support when it’s needed.
2022
Q4 Q1 Q1 Q1Q2 Q2Q3 Q3Q4 Q4
20252023 2024
Better engagement with our communities through improved multi-channel and direct communications, education programmes
and regular stakeholder forums.
Supporting customers in vulnerable situations by improving our priority services during incidents and our social tari oering.
Making things easier for our customers by improving the online experience and creating a new website, improving
customer journey, data quality and complaints process. We’ll also introduce a video assistant for customers.
Creating a customer culture. Making sure that every colleague understands our customers and their unique needs.
This includes the introduction of customer promises and customer service training for all colleagues and partners.
Turnaround Plan 2023–25 Page 6
Improve online experience and launch new website
Enhance customer, developer and retail portals
Improve customer and performance data and analytics
Roll out customer promise and customer service training to upskill colleagues
Improve communications with colleagues
Supply chain training and journey improvements
Deliver education programmes in our communities
Improve communication with better media briefings, social monitoring and multi-media content
Improve stakeholder engagement through regional MP forums, newsletters and site visits
Improve roadside messaging
Expand the social tari programme
Enhance our Priority Services 
Provide more customer insights to
teams to inform decision making
Launch new tools like video assistants and simplify our processes for customers
Reduce time to respond to complaints
Empowered and supported colleagues
Objective: Manage a safe and ethical workforce
with reduction to 0.2 lost time injury rate.
Our key focus areas We’re creating a safe working environment with empowered and supported colleagues by…
The safety of our communities, colleagues, and supply
chain partners remains our highest priority. That’s
why we’re making improvements to the equipment,
training and policies we use to deliver a safe system
of work.
These changes range from onboarding new
technologies, including artificial intelligence to help our
teams better understand hazards and risks, through to
adopting a completely new Safety System designed to
allow us to record, track and treat emerging issues.
The programme will see the number of safety
specialists double and the delivery of a company-wide
management training project, arming our leaders with
professional safety skills, such as the NEBOSH General
Certificate and the IOSH Managing Safety qualification.
Our colleagues and partners will also go through an
immersive safety day designed to empower them to
challenge anything they feel is unsafe.
Compliance remains one of our top priorities, sowe’re
introducing new systems, inspections, and assurance
processes.
We’re committed to supporting our colleagues, which is
whywe’ve introduced our Inspire Academy, internships,
and a graduate programme to develop great skills and
retain top talent. We know that investing in our people
is essential to our success, and we’re proud to oer
our employees opportunities to grow and develop their
careers with us.
2022
Q4 Q1 Q1 Q1Q2 Q2Q3 Q3Q4 Q4
20252023 2024
Managing our compliance through new systems, inspections and assurance.
Improving the safety of our colleagues with the introduction of a new mobile risk safety app.
Supporting our colleagues through our Inspire Academy, internships and a graduate programme to make sure
we upskill and develop each individual.
Working with care to embed health and safety as a key way of working with upskilling, training and
onboarding programmes.
Turnaround Plan 2023–25 Page 7
Introduce a new company-wide risk assessment app
Review app usage and improve over time to minimise health and safety risk
Provide colleagues with the knowledge, skills, and awareness to make safe decisions through behavioural training
Company-wide upskilling to meet future needs
More eective and comprehensive onboarding programmes limiting initial risk
Place of work risk assurance process updated
Improve statutory risk inspection processes
Improve risk management systems
Develop and roll-out the Inspire Academy for 500 managers to support our colleagues in the work they do
Expand and launch apprentice programme bringing in new talent
Roll-out of new contracts and ways of working to improve customer management and operational response
Refresh internal documentation and standards to ensure H&S is embedded within our processes
Consumer experience
+8%
Improve C-Mex
to 7.5/10
Developer experience
+5%
Improve D-Mex
to 8.4/10
Water quality
-52%
Improve water quality
compliance (CRI score of 3.25)
Leakage
-2%
Leakage (in year) to
improve to 94.9 ml/d
Water usage
-2%
Reduce per capita clean water
usage (in year) to 129.6 litres
per person, per day
Treatment works compliance
>99%
Compliance for
treatment works
Mains repairs
+48%
Limit mains repairs
per 1,000 kms to 150
Sewer collapses
-26%
Reduce sewer
collapses to 250
Internal flooding
-65%
Reduce internal sewer
flooding incidents to 213
External flooding
-20%
Reduce external sewer
flooding incidents to 3,171
Supply interruptions
-36%
Reduce average number of
minutes a property has their
supply interrupted to 6 min
Pollution incidents
-79%
Reduce pollution
incidents to 77
Unplanned outage
-56%
Reduce number of
unplanned outages to 3.13%
Our performance improvements
Alongside our Turnaround Plan priorities, we’re measured against
a wider set of metrics, shared by all water companies.
Below are the targets we’re aiming to achieve in the next two years, based on where we were in 2022.
Turnaround Plan 2023–25 Page 8
Turnaround Plan 2023–25 Page 9