A water company has issued an apology to its customers after some were left without supply for nearly a week during scorching temperatures.

More than 2,000 residents in Crowborough, Rotherfield, Mayfield and Wadhurst been experienced a complete lack of water or low pressure since Sunday, June 11.

Schools and businesses had to shut and animals were in danger of death by dehydration.

South East Water has now announced a hosepipe ban for Sussex and Kent which comes into effect from June 26 and supply has returned.

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“All our customers should have had their tap water supplies returned to normal during the weekend," said South East Water’s incident manager Steve Andrews.

“We were able to recover the levels of our treated water storage reservoirs when the very high demand we had seen dropped.

“This was due to the combination of the hosepipe ban in Kent and Sussex on Friday and the cooler weather during the weekend.

“We’d like to thank our customers who have helped by only using tap water for essential tasks and turning off sprinkler systems.

“We’d also once again apologise to our customers who were without water, some for a prolonged period of time.

“Compensation payments will automatically be made to customers who suffered prolonged supply interruptions.

“We know it has been very difficult and we are putting measures in place to prevent further issues as the hot, dry weather continues.”