SOUTH East Water must be brought into public ownership immediately, campaigners warned,  after tens of thousands of residents were left without water this week.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski joined public ownership advocates today in demanding the government withdraw the water company’s licence after an investigation was launched into breaches of standards.

An estimated 30,000 properties were affected at the height of the shortage, with many of those still without water today.

Water regulator Ofwat has opened an investigation into whether South East Water provided high standards of customer service and support, which is a condition of their licence.

Its director, Lynn Parker, said the last six weeks have been “miserable.”

The Green Party leader joined the calls for the government to take South East Water into public hands via special administration, after the company left 25,000 homes without water this week.

In a letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Mr Polanski listed the company’s recent and historical failings, which he said took place “despite successive price hikes.”

“There is a clear alternative: bringing water back into public hands,” he wrote, claiming the recent crisis meets the government’s “high threshold” to put the company into special administration.

Public ownership advocates We Own It said the water company must “absolutely have its licence withdrawn immediately.”

“The government must bring it into special administration and then permanent public ownership. Anything else — fines, resignations — is tinkering around the edges,” the group’s director Cat Hobbs said.

“Privatisation and regulation have been failing now since 1989, they will never work.

“South East Water spent more on dividends for private shareholders than on infrastructure. That’s why people don’t have access to water right now, the most basic service, and that’s why we need public ownership.”