Ofwat has welcomed a new report from Water UK which shows that the water companies in England and Wales have delivered on their promise to compile and deliver a key set of developer service standards that can be used to compare performance across the industry.

From April to June 2015, data published today shows there were nearly 127,000 separate requests for action measured by the standards from individuals, builders with small developments up to 500 plots, builders with large developments over 500 plots, and self lay organisations.

Of these requests, 118,202 related to water supply, where industry average performance was 89%, and 8,717 for sewerage services, with industry average performance at 94%.

The full set of figures cover 15 water supply and 9 sewerage performance targets for a range of services including enquiries, quotations, connections, design, construction and adoption of developer laid assets across England and Wales.

Water UK Chief Executive Pamela Taylor said:

"Setting and publishing water standards is the latest stage of the industry's commitment continuously to improve services for developers. Further work is currently underway to find ways to improve interactions with the planning system as well as develop new customer satisfaction measures."

The performance figures are available for each company and will be updated quarterly on the Water UK website.

Welcoming the performance monitoring report's publication, Richard Khaldi, Senior Director Customers and Casework at water industry regulator Ofwat, said:

"We are pleased to see the first report on companies' performance against the service levels they have agreed for developer services. Customers need to have confidence in the services needed to provide new connections, and this is an important next step in improving these services.

"These quarterly reports will make it clearer for everyone whether companies are delivering what they have promised. The ability to compare across the sector is already encouraging companies to improve their performance and to deal with many of the long-standing problems in this area.

"We will be reviewing this first and future reports to inform where and how we focus our efforts to drive further benefits for customers."

Water cos determined to improve service and efficiency to raise performance levels

Commenting on the data, Richard Warneford, Chairman of Water UK's Developer Services Standards Group, said:

"For the first time we have gathered and published reliable data so that stakeholders can see how well the water industry and individual companies are performing and meeting developers' requests to provide timely water and sewerage services for their home building and other development projects.”

"This is very much a move in the right direction which will enable companies to compare their performance and provide a spur to improve their service and support to developers. We know there will always be more to be done and all the water companies are determined to improve service and efficiency to raise their levels of performance."

Dave Mitchell, Technical Director of the Home Builders Federation said:

"HBF welcomes the publication of service standards within the water sector. This is the first time that such a comprehensive range of statistics has been gathered. Such information will prove extremely useful as we look to drive up improved service levels throughout the industry."

In April 2015 Water UK published a set of service levels for water companies’ developer services. All water companies voluntarily agreed to these levels of service and are monitoring their performance against them.

All 10 of the major water and sewerage companies in England and Wales are participating in the initiative as well as water only companies. Sutton and East Surrey Water has recently joined the initiative and submitted data which will be published in the next quarterly report, on 29 October 2015. Water UK is also in consultation with newer entrants to the water industry with a view to them also participating.

Water UK has separately published a guide to the reporting methodology for measuring levels of service which explains the metrics and definitions behind the Developer Services reporting.

Click here to access Developer Services levels of service performance – % within target water supply and sewerage                                                                                                                                       

Click here to access Developer Services levels of service volumes of applications / jobs received by range – water supply and sewerage                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Click here to download the Guide – Developer Services - Information on levels of service reporting by water companies