Ofwat plans to extend minimum service standards, with wholesalers being held responsible for dealing with issues surrounding low water pressure, providing notices for interruption of supply, failing to restore supplies, and sewer flooding.
Under the provisional allocation, water retailers will be held accountable for making and keeping appointments, handling complaints, and dealing with account queries and requests to change payment arrangements.
If either the wholesaler or retailer fails to meet any of their allocated guaranteed service standards, they will obliged to make a specified payment to the affected customer.
In the consultation, Ofwat said there was a need to extend the guaranteed service standards to the retail and wholesale companies because customer would otherwise lose these protections.
The regulator added: “This is likely to cause confusion for customers, as they may find they have inadvertently lost their GSS protections when they switched to a new retailer. It could also potentially act as a deterrent to customers switching if they are aware of the difference.”
The deadline for responses to the consultation is 2 October, and Ofwat will then make a formal recommendation on amending the guaranteed service standard regime to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Welsh Government at the end of that month.