Ofwat has said it will build on the role of customer challenge groups (CCGs) in its next price review – PR19.
“We see CCGs as having an enormously important role and we think they have been a very positive development in engagement with companies and how that information flows,” John Russell, Ofwat’s senior director of customers and casework, told Utility Week.
“We are going to be building on that by making sure they have access to the right kind of information, and that they are really challenging companies.”
The regulator has committed to revamping its service incentive mechanism (SIM) into a ‘customer experience measurement’, as part of an approach to encourage water companies to “own the relationships with their customers”.
“That is a key thing we developed in PR14, and is definitely something we are going to be pushing harder,” said Russell.
CCGs, he said, will play a vital role in making sure the new customer experience measurement is targeted in the right kind of way, so that the regulator gets the right kind of feedback for developing its new mechanism.
“CCGs are an important part of the regulatory architecture and landscape, and we think they have been a really positive move from PR14,” he added.