Ofwat will not “jump on the bandwagon” of negative media attention targeted at the water sector.
Instead, Ofwat senior director for customers Lynn Parker told Utility Week’s Customer Summit that the regulator is committed to “re-establishing relationships with the media” to “dampen down” the negative media coverage.
Despite Parker’s pledge to defend the sector from unfair media attention, Northumbrian Water chief executive Heidi Mottram called for the regulator to take a “more balanced” approach to its public announcements.
Parker said: “Within Ofwat we are not jumping on that bandwagon and we are certainly not feeding that media frenzy.
“We are very much trying to dampen it down because it’s in everybody’s interest.”
She added: “If we do find very poor behaviour that needs addressing, then we will call that out.
“So it is getting that balance right about the difficulties and all of the things that we are facing and how we are working together to make things better for the future, versus where we see very bad practice.”
Following Parker’s comments, the Northumbrian boss was asked whether she agreed with that Ofwat defends the sector and does not jump on negative media bandwagons.
In response Mottram said “yes and no” and that “there’s probably not enough calling out of really good stuff”.
She continued: “We are just creating a one-sided debate and that’s not massively helpful for trust.
“If we could shout out what is good and the regulator could support and go ‘yes I agree’, then I think you’d have a more balanced debate and that the public would appreciate that.”
In recent years, water companies have come under increasing pressure to improve their services after reports of major sewage spills into the UK’s rivers.
In November 2021 Ofwat and the Environment Agency announced investigations into all water and wastewater companies in England and Wales after several firms warned they might not be treating as much sewage at their wastewater treatment works as they should be, and that this could be resulting in sewage discharges into the environment at times when this should not be happening.
In the following June South West Water became the sixth wastewater company that Ofwat opened an enforcement case against as part of its ongoing investigation.
The five other companies include Anglian, Northumbrian, Thames, Wessex and Yorkshire, although all wastewater companies remain subject to investigation.