There’s a deeper purpose here too. As Whitehall budgets are slashed across the board, Ofwat is having to deliaver more for less. The newly-lean regulator will find its job of holding companies to account easier if those companies have to regularly make public a variety of datasets that reveal both their performance and their finances. As a former company chief executive himself, Ofwat chairman Jonson Cox knows that the harsh light of public scrutiny can be a great motivator. It’s an insight he has used cannily, and to great effect, since taking the chair in 2013.
That’s not to say water companies shouldn’t welcome the move. It may go against the grain for a sector that likes to stay under the radar, but times are changing and customers and other stakeholders see access to information as a right, not a privilege. Rather than see that information revealed piecemeal and out of context, companies can lead the agenda and shape the conversation.
Chances are, it will serve them well to do so. Take the National Audit Office’s recent report on the sector, which claimed water companies pocketed more than £800 million in the last AMP thanks to low tax and interest rates. Many leading figures in the industry say privately the NAO got its sums wrongs, with numbers that fail to reflect the cost of embedded debt, and other expenses faced by water companies. How much easier would it be to refute such errors if water company information was clearly and easily accessible?
Moreover, making datasets public enlists potentially thousands of data experts who can spot trends and help water companies see or solve problems – take Yorkshire Water’s recent hackathon, for example, and read Jacob Tompkins’ comments this week on p7.
The companies have accepted that the strategic dashboard is happening, and have taken control of the project, under the auspices of Water UK. As the steering committee works out what datasets should be shown and how, the industry should remember that the more detail it provides, and the more open it is about its finances in particular, the more effective the dashboard will be.