Speaking at the Water 2017 event, Ofwat’s outgoing chief executive, Cathryn Ross said the water sector and other utilities are “ripe for a revolution”. She predicts a “radical shake-up” in how customers will buy utilities and home services. Ross suggested in the coming years customers would no longer have multiple providers for services such as […]
Reported in Water Briefing, Ofwat says that a crackdown on leakage could save enough water for five cities. The regulator has urged water companies to go “much further” to cut down on leakage and has challenged the industry to save up to 170 billion litres of water a year by targeting leaks. Addressing the issue […]
Cathryn Ross speaking notes – Moody’s 2017 UK Water Sector Conference, 17 October 2017 Ofwat: ‘Good morning everyone. It’s great to be here. And thanks to Neil and the team at Moody’s for inviting me. When I agreed to talk at this conference I said I’d talk about the challenges and opportunities for companies through […]
Resilience, one of the four themes of Ofwat’s 2019 price review, took centre stage at recent event in London, with senior figures from across the water sector gathering to discuss what ‘resilience in the round’ should look like in practice and how water companies can learn from the past experiences and best practices of other […]
Following a recent consultation, Defra has published its Strategic Policy Statement to Ofwat. Full details are available here, but some of the key points are: No substantive changes from the draft statement – the wording of some points / objectives has moved away from “Ofwat should work with” to be more challenging for both the […]
Ofwat and commentators are suggesting that this will be an especially tough periodic review process, with less ‘easy money’ to be made. The Ofwat methodology sets out: our expectations and requirements for companies preparing their business plans to meet the needs of their customers from 2020 to 2025 and beyond; how these expectations form the […]
The election and Grenfell have changed the mood. First it was Corbyn’s plan to renationalise water, then his relative success at the election, then another monster fine for Thames for failed leakage targets, the scandal of Australian investment bank Macquarie’s exploitation, and then Grenfell where profit lead deregulation was and will be fully exposed […]
David Black is the Senior Director at Ofwat. This presentation, ‘Water 2020: Wholesale markets and PR19’, was given at the Water Industry Asset Management Conference, 10 May 2017. Over the next 18 months, water companies in England and Wales will be drawing up their business plans for 2020 to 2025, as part of the ‘Periodic […]