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Governance

Editor's picks

MOSL: ‘Persistent problems’ not being addressed fast enough
The non-domestic water sector is continuing to underperform in long-standing problem areas, market operator MOSL has concluded. Its latest market performance report highlights issues around billing, customer service and meter reads. It has also published peer comparison league tables.
News
MOSL and Ofwat change codes to protect retail market
Business water retailers will be given leeway on settlement deferrals and can list customers’ premises as vacant if they are temporarily closed due to coronavirus, under new rules. Utility Week examines the fresh measures Ofwat and MOSL have introduced to support retailers facing a collpase in their cashflow as a result of coronavirus.
News

Featured

Identifying hidden vulnerable customers
Even before the coronavirus, understanding which of their customers would come under the broad umbrella of “vulnerable” was a key challenge for utilities companies. Here data specialist Mike Fox looks at ways companies can use their own data to search out difficult-to-identify vulnerabilities.
Opinion
Mixing energy and water
In the latest of a series of articles exclusively for Utility Week members, Maxine Frerk – former senior partner networks at Ofgem – gives her view on the price control processes across the utilities sector. She examines the themes emerging from the PR19 appeals and what read across we can identify for the price reviews in energy.
Opinion
Learning never stops
With a structured mentoring programme, utilities can enrich the working lives of employees and pass on hard-won experience to the next generation.
Opinion

Latest in Governance

CMA likely to approve Bristol acquisition
Pennon Group's acquisition of Bristol Water has moved closer to completion as the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said it is likely that evidence provided by the former would be accepted in response to concerns the deal could undermine Ofwat's ability to regulate. Meanwhile, the CMA has also launched a merger inquiry into the acquisition of a minority stake in gas distribution network SGN by Brookfield Asset Management.
News
Southern underperforms against key AMP7 targets
Southern Water's interim results for the first six months of 2021/22 show the business is behind on a series of key targets and has already exceeded its annual maximum number of sewer flooding incidents following a particularly wet summer season. The company, which welcomed a new majority shareholder in September when Macquarie invested more than £1 billion, has set out it strategies to improve across all indicators.
News
Ofgem ignored repeated warnings over Avro Energy
Concerns about Avro Energy were raised with Ofgem by Citizens Advice on 10 separate occasions in the three years before its collapse, the charity has revealed. In a damning new report, Citizens Advice accused Ofgem of making a “catalogue of errors” and failing to act against unfit energy suppliers for nearly a decade, leaving the market in a “precarious position” and consumers with a £2.6 billion bill.
News
Ofwat mulls protections against ‘risky’ financial structures
Ofwat has set out options to protect customers from water company financing risks as part of a consultation following its financial resilience report last month. The regulator has proposed measures including raising the minimum standards of credit quality, strengthening expectations on dividend payments being linked to performance and increasing transparency.
News
Thames admits ‘long way to go’ with transformation programme
Thames Water has reported on the first six months of its programme to transform from an underperforming water company under the leadership of a new executive team. The company has prioritised customer service and tackling pollution as it works to "get the basics right" and increased its investment in asset base and network monitoring.
News
Ofwat concerned about finances of SES, Southern and Yorkshire
Ofwat has taken steps to restore public trust in the sector with revised licences to reflect expectations of transparency and financial resilience. However its report into resilience in the first year of AMP7 found several companies are lagging behind expectations as it expressed concerns over the finances of SES, Southern and Yorkshire.
News
Move fast and fix things: Can utilities embrace agile ways of working?
“Monolithic utilities” need to deliver change to avoid being “eaten up by start-ups” – that’s the message from experts within the sector who are seeking to adopt a culture of agile working. This report explores how utilities can learn from disruptors and other industries about adopting a DevOps culture. With contributions from Shell Energy Retail, Octopus Energy, Everflow and UK Power Networks among others.
Downloads
Ofwat launches investigation into ‘unpermitted’ sewage discharges
Ofwat has launched an investigation into allegations of illegal discharges from combined sewer overflows after receiving reports of “widespread unpermitted releases of sewage”. The regulator said new information, along with analysis by the Environment Agency, suggests water and wastewater companies “may have released sewage into rivers and waterways when they were not legally allowed to do so."
News
How to fix megaprojects (and all capital projects that matter)
Less than one per cent of megaprojects deliver the promised benefits on time and on budget. Download this report from Vision to learn why they go wrong, how you can fix them and why the fix works. The report also explores how these lessons can be applied to all capital projects of scale.
Downloads
Cox expected to stay on at Ofwat until 2022
Jonson Cox is expected to have his position as chair at Ofwat extended while the Secretary of State begins the process of appointing a successor. Cox has held the position since 2012 and had the tenure extended in 2019 until the end of this month.
News
Anglian’s route to net zero: Green finance, process emissions and strength in numbers
Anglian Water has several industry firsts under its belt including in green finance. As part of our Countdown to COP coverage Utility Week talks to Anglian's head of carbon neutrality about the company putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to carbon commitments. He also discusses trials around process emissions and how better data can help crack the problem
Analysis
Pauline Walsh steps down from Affinity Water
Affinity Water chief executive Pauline Walsh has stepped down with immediate effect, to be replaced on an interim basis by chief financial officer Stuart Ledger. Meanwhile the company has confirmed it is considering redundancies, citing stretching performance commitments and financial impacts of Covid-19.
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