A string of pollution incidents and poor performance will see the main water companies which serve Kent having to slash bills next year.

Nationally, the majority of water companies will have to shave a total of £150million of customer bills, the regulator Ofwat has confirmed today.

And among the worse performing nationally are Thames Water and Southern Water.

It will come as little surprise to many in the county who have seen a host of pollution incidents leading to warnings not to bathe in the waters around our coast.

Due to missed targets on water treatment works compliance, pollution incidents and internal sewer flooding over the last year, both firms will experience a significant financial hit.

Thames Water, which provide water and sewage services for some parts of the county - including Dartford and Sevenoaks - will have to reduce bills by £51m; the highest reduction of all water companies.

Southern Water which provides water and wasterwater services to Medway, Thanet, Gravesend, Sheppey and Sandwich will have to cut £28.3m off bills; the second highest figure.

South East Water, which handles much of the county, fared better but will still have to reduce bills by £3.2m; Affinity, which covers parts of Dover and Folkestone, just £800,000.

The failure to hit targets over the last year will see bills reduced for 2023-24.

David Black, Ofwat CEO, said: “When it comes to delivering for their customers, too many water companies are falling short, and we are requiring them to return around £150m to their customers.

“We expect companies to improve their performance every year; where they fail to do so, we will hold them to account. The poorest performers, Southern Water and Thames Water, will have to return almost £80m to their customers. All water companies need to earn back the trust of customers and the public and we will continue to challenge the sector to improve.”

The picture elsewhere in the country was very different.

Better performers such as Severn Trent Water has exceeded its targets in areas like biodiversity and are able to recover more money from customers to the tune of £62.9m.

These yearly targets, called performance commitments, are a combination of shared targets across the sector and bespoke individual targets on a wide range of issues. They were set in 2019 at the last price review and remain in place until the next price review in 2025.

These draft decisions by Ofwat are now out for consultation and can be viewed on the Ofwat website. The consultation closes on October 21