Speaking today at a Westminster Energy, Environment, and Transport Forum event in London, Thames Water director of strategy and regulation Nick Fincham said the move to the new system would deliver outcomes “acceptable to customers in the long term”.
The move would place more responsibility on the companies to develop a business plan with direct input from their customers, as is the situation in Scotland, with Ofwat having less direct input into how the final business plans look.
He said: “PR14 showed how much value can be driven from companies with greater ownership of their relationship with their customers.
“There is room for that to be built on and go further, and for Ofwat in future reviews to place greater trust in companies to develop plans that meet customers’ longer term needs. should be the direction of travel.”
The call was echoed by South East Water customer forum chair Roger Darlington, who said the move would avoid the situation whereby some people “felt uncomfortable” after PR14 because Ofwat had “significantly altered some plans” despite companies’ “massive efforts” in customer engagement.
He added that CCG’s would need to be better resourced and restructured so they could better represent customers and provide more of a cost challenge to the companies.
Business Stream chief executive Johanna Dow, who is part of the customer forum which represents customers in these discussions in Scotland, called the process “powerful” and able to deliver good outcomes for customers.
Consumer Council for Water chief executive Tony Smith cautiously supported the idea, saying it “sounds right”. However he warned that for the process to work, safeguards would have to be developed and put in place to prevent companies being able to “game the system”.
Ofwat senior director for Water 2020 David Black said consumer engagement would increase in PR19, but there remain “questions on how may work” that would have to be worked out before a shift to this system in England would be considered and adopted.