MP Calls For £18million Fund

The MP for Tunbridge Wells, Mike Martin, has written to the Water Minister calling for Covid-style business continuity and recovery support for local businesses who've suffered through the town's water crisis.

Mike Martin MP wants a fund of £18.5 million pounds.

He says: "Our business and shops have suffered horrendously through this crisis - many may go out of business as a result."

He says he awaits a response to this "urgent" request. This is his letter to the minister:

Thank you for all of your support and leadership during the water supply crisis, as yet still ongoing, in
Tunbridge Wells. I a m also grateful to the Prime Minister for his attention to this matter and
particularly his characterisation of the crisis here as "shocking" and as having "really serious
consequences" - thus demonstrating a true understanding of the scale of the crisis.

Yesterday, on the Strategic Response Group call, I raised with you the issue of business continuity and
support in Tunbridge Wells. This outage is occurring over what should be t h e busiest period of t h e
year. I asked this because of the very real chance that this crisis will see businesses go under, as many
did t h e last time this happened in 2022.

I, a n d I a m sure you and t h e Prime Minster, will want t o d o everything possible t o make sure that this
doesn't happen again, causing further anguish in our community a n d a loss of revenue t o t h e
Exchequer. The people of Tunbridge Wells have suffered enough already without them also losing
their livelihoods.

In summary, I am asking you, on behalf of businesses in Tunbridge Wells, to support our request
for up to £18.5m to be immediately released to, and administered by, Tunbridge Wells Borough
Council (TWBC) in order to support business continuity and recovery. I would be grateful if you
could take this to your Secretary of State and to the Chancellor.

Background
This is the third time in three years that businesses have been impacted by extreme water outages
caused by South East Water (SEW). Two of those incidents have been in the run-up to Christmas and
both those events have h a d a duration of (a minimum of) six days. As you know t h e current crisis is
still ongoing.

Christmas a crucial time for local businesses. Businesses (and TWBC) invest heavily in this period and
for many, it represents a significant proportion of their turnover. For some, it makes the difference
between survival and going under in the fallow months after the new year.

Businesses have b e e n impacted in a number of ways - many have been forced t o close for public
health reasons, others have suffered from massively reduced footfall or other issues (such as school
closures, meaning staff have been unable to work).

Whilst some businesses will have business interruption (BI) cover, this is often subject to significant
excesses and any claims will result in increased premiums in future years. In any case, a number of
businesses have indicated to me that they are suffering from cash flow issues now, and so will be
shuttered before any BI payments arrive.

There is also a potential issue in that some businesses may not have pre-notified insurance
companies (a requirement of cover in many cases) given the repeated false assurances by SEW that
the disruption would b e of short duration and the constantly shifting sands. I am particularly grateful
to the Prime Minister for calling this out at PMQs this week.

It is usually the case that businesses face an uphill battle to demonstrate the exceptional impact of
outages at Christmas. In this case, the impact has been exacerbated by significant failings in
communications and updates from SEW and a constant tendency to over promise and underdeliver.
There is ample evidence that footfall has been significantly lower compared with previous years. I am
happy to provide this evidence should you require it.

Outline Financial Request - IMMEDIATE
The Treasury t o provide a n immediate S31 Grant of £4.4m/£18.1m (see below) t o put in place a
replica of t h e scheme we set up under Covid. NB: TWBC needs this money immediately as it does not
have surplus cash.

TWBC have already identified the number of businesses within the affected area and the scheme
would enable them to pay £10k to each of the 438 retail, hospitality and leisure premises within the
affected area that have a Rateable Value (RV) of under £15k (this is the category that is classed as
Small Business and receive Small Business Rates Relief).

Extending the scheme to the 548 business with an RV over f15k and giving a grant of £25,000 to
each, in line with the Covid scheme, would cost an additional £13.7m (£18.1m in total).

An additional £350,000 (to be given to the Tunbridge Wells Business Improvement District via TWBC)
to be used for town-wide promotional efforts to counter the imposed fear of coming into town
created by the SEW water crisis. This would help bring people back to spending with local businesses
for Christmas and in the subsequent Spring months (bringing it to approx. f18.5m).
Ideally, the Treasury would then pursue a claim/fine against SEW to recover what we actually paid
out.

Examples:
In respect to the figures above, we offer these real examples from Tunbridge Wells:
• Basil café: losses in week to 7/12/25 c.£20,000. Should closure extend during entire 10-day
boil notice, losses will be c. £50,000.
• Businesses are not eligible for bottled water supplies and have incurred significant costs
sourcing it themselves. One example is a charitable steam railway company that has had to
purchase 28,000 bottles of water to fill their steam engines to keep their schedule of
Christmas attractions (and thus not lose all their income).
• Hospice in the Weald charity shops: actual losses £8,000 to date. This is the equivalent of
two whole days of inpatient care - the nurses, healthcare assistants, doctors, and paramedics
providing 24/7 end of life care to the community here in Tunbridge Wells, and beyond.

C o n s i d e r a t i o n s :
TWBC has extensive experience of managing grants a n d assuring that they are being spent effectively
and appropriately. They did this during Covid and put strong and effective controls in place.

TWBC has strong links with local businesses. It is o n e of only three authorities in Kent with a Business
Improvement District that is strongly engaged with a n d attuned to t h e needs of business.

A possible source of funding for the package of support might be from any fines levied on SEW. It is
clear that they have (repeatedly) failed to maintain supply and breached their obligations in respect
of maintaining supply.

Practical Support - POST-CRISIS
Beyond this, and in slightly slower time, we would be looking for practical support in two particular
areas:
Insurance claims:
Working with local businesses and industry groups (including the Association of British Insurers) to
explore how we can streamline the claims process for businesses.
Business rates
Businesses can be eligible for Business Rate Relief if they are affected by local disruption as has been
the case in Tunbridge Wells. Our experience in previous incidents has been that this process is slow
and laborious to activate. We would be keen to explore whether we can devise a 'class application'
whereby we can provide a single set of evidence to apply on a blanket basis to businesses within the
affected area.