Staff were informed on Monday of the potential job losses which will see the company reduce in size by 10 per cent as part of its efficiency programme. Alongside the job losses, 100 new positions will be created.
A spokesperson told Utility Week: “It’s a process of gearing up towards the retail separation which obviously everyone is working towards and development services will be part of that.
“We’re recognising that Bristol Water, as a company, has grown organically over the years and in order to be able to move forward and be competitive and efficient, we had to look at a new operating model.”
In a statement, Bristol Water added: “The reduction is evenly spread across the business to ensure no deterioration in our services and we will seek to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies.”
The restructuring process will take place over the next 12 months.
These changes follow a restructuring Bristol Water has already implemented as it avoided a penalty for anti-competitive behaviour.
The water company pledged to Ofwat to create “two distinct and separately staffed functions”, namely a retail-facing and wholesale -facing business units, to ensure self-lay organisations are not being unfairly disadvantaged when it comes to connecting new developments.