Eight out of ten complaints in the newly opened non-household water market relate to one of the three biggest companies, according to the Consumer Council for Water (CCWater).
Speaking at Future Retail #1, a conference held by Utility Week’s sister title Water.Retail in London today (23 March), the deputy chief executive of CCWater, Phil Marshall, revealed that 80 per cent of the complaints received about the non-household water market to date related to Castle Water, Water Plus, or Anglian Water Business (now part of Wave). Between them, these three companies control 60 per cent of the market.
Complaints about non-household water retail have soared since market opening, up from 730 in 2016 to 2,270 in 2017. Marshall said CCWater had been expecting an uptick in complaints in the early months of the market as consumer awareness grew and teething issues were ironed out but admitted: “They have gone up quite significantly more than we might have anticipated.”
However, Marshall said the lower complaint levels seen across the rest of the market suggest the problems are not systemic but specific to individual retailers and as such can be, and are being, resolved. He acknowledged that Castle Water and Water Plus have had specific problems which are being addressed. CCWater publicly called on Castle Water to address its performance on complaints earlier this month, which the company said it was doing.
Also speaking at Future Retail #1, market performance director at MOSL (Market Operator Services Limited) Steve Arthur predicted improved performance across the market in the coming year. He said: “I don’t think the first year has seen typical levels of performance – I think we will see a step change now.”
This will be driven in part by the introduction of market performance charges from 1 April, he said. These payments, which market participants are liable for if they fail to deliver against market performance commitments, were suspended for the first year of the market but will now “begin to bite,” Arthur said.