South East Water chair, Chris Train, stood down at the start of May.
That was the day the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) select committee called for a change in leadership and highlighted “incompetence” from those at the top.
Now, eight days after their declaration of “no confidence” in the leadership – Hinton has also gone.
“Mr Hinton has decided to step down as he feels his position has become an increasing distraction from South East Water’s most important priority, which is to deliver a resilient water supply for its customers,” a South East Water spokesperson said.
The board says it remains focused on accelerating targeted engineering works and making operational changes to improve the resilience of its supply network, and increase water capacity, and quality in high priority areas.
Martin has said the new chair and CEO must be “external hires” in order to change the culture and “group think” at the company.
The South East Water board may look to another water company for the new leaders.
Somewhere like Severn Trent, which was praised by the Chief Inspector of Drinking Water, Marcus Rink, in his select committee evidence for putting “their hands in their pocket and [putting] in investment”.
Or, they could look away from the sector, opting not for another “water guy” but a leader with a track records in other industries.
In 2024 Thames Water hired former army officer and energy boss Chris Weston.
But even with a baseline annual salary of £400,000, Hinton is one of the lowest paid water bosses in the country.
Will the board need to increase that to bring in the top talent?
And it may be a struggle to attract the right leader to a company that fails so often and is under such intense scrutiny.
Hinton’s reign may be nearly over but the challenges facing South East Water are not, and they run deep.
