At present, only a limited number of non-household water customers across England and Wales can choose their retailer – but this will change significantly in April 2017. The Water Act 2014 will allow 1.2 million businesses and other non-household customers of providers wholly or mainly in England to choose their supplier of water and wastewater retail services. Retail services include:
- billing;
- meter reading; and
- other customer services.
This consultation is part of our work to ensure that the new non-household retail market operates in a way that is in the best interests of customers. It sets out the background to the introduction of non-household retail price controls from 1 April 2015 and seeks views on the best approach to reviewing these price controls ahead of market opening in April 2017.