Sutton and East Surrey Water

Sutton and East Surrey Water, which rebranded as SES Water in 2017, supplies drinking water to over 750,000 customers across 322 square miles of southeast England. Its territory covers east Surrey, West Sussex, west Kent, and parts of south London, from Morden and South Croydon in the north to Gatwick Airport in the south, and from Cobham and Dorking in the west to Edenbridge and Bough Beech in the east. The company serves roughly 282,000 homes and businesses, including the airport, and produces around 35 million imperial gallons (160 megalitres) of treated water each day through eight treatment works and 2,100 miles of water mains. About 85 percent of its water comes from deep chalk aquifers and greensand deposits, with the remaining 15 percent drawn from the River Eden and stored at Bough Beech Reservoir.

The company's roots go back to 1862, when the Caterham Spring Water Company was founded after a builder named Mr. Drew drilled a borehole for a housing development on Caterham Hill. A group of businessmen bought the operation and secured a special Act of Parliament to formalise the supply. In 1863, the Sutton and Cheam Water Company began serving the parish of Sutton. The Caterham Spring Water Company merged with the Kenley Water Company in 1885 to form the East Surrey Water Company, which later absorbed the Dorking Water Company in the 1950s. The modern entity was created in 1996 when Sutton District Water merged with East Surrey Water to become Sutton and East Surrey Water plc. In January 2024, Pennon Group plc, a FTSE 250 company, acquired the business from previous owners Sumitomo Corporation and Osaka Gas.

SES Water operates two trading divisions: SES Business Water and SES Home Services. It maintains 31 service reservoirs and water towers, 23 pumping stations, and a surface reservoir at Bough Beech. In 2021, the company became the first UK water utility to deploy intelligent leak detection technology across its entire network. Its Bough Beech Education Centre, opened in the 1990s, provides community learning about water and the environment. The company has also supported WaterAid since the 1980s. Despite these initiatives, customer satisfaction remains low; SES Water holds a Trustpilot rating of 1.9 out of 5, with 71 percent of reviews being one-star, often citing billing issues and poor communication. [edit]