Severn Trent Water has welcomed the findings of Professor Martin Cave's independent review of competition and innovation in the water sector, published this week.

Tony Ballance, Severn Trent's Director of Regulation and Competition, said: "Severn Trent welcomes the findings of the review and supports the development of competition where it brings benefits to customers - such as lower prices, improved service or reduced impact on the environment.

"We believe that, if anything, competition could develop even more quickly than the Cave Review envisages."

Tony Ballance added: "Retail competition should not be seen as an end in itself. It would bring far more substantial benefits to customers if coupled with other competitive developments such as the development and allocation of water resources. We believe that better water resources management is where the biggest benefits of competition will be found.

"We support 'common carriage' or similar arrangements for water, which should also be made to work through more interconnections with neighbouring water companies and an appropriate regime for access prices."Severn Trent believes the development of a robust competitive framework should concentrate on ways of:

improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the sector;
ensuring the security in the supply of quality water; and
ensuring sufficient investment in the infrastructure by allowing the necessary returns on investment to be made.