The Competition and Markets Authority has published the first submissions from Ofwat and the five water companies for 2024 Price Review appeals, alongside a significant list of submissions from other stakeholders and a detailed timetable for the redeterminations.

Six water companies rejected Ofwat’s final determinations and asked Ofwat to refer them to the CMA for a redetermination and on 18 March 2025 Ofwat made five references to the CMA.

In February Thames Water asked the economic regulator to refer its PR24 Final Determination to the CMA for a re-determination. The water company and Ofwat agreed that Ofwat will defer making the reference for a period of up to 18 weeks from 18 March 2025.

Thames Water explained that the deferral is not a withdrawal of the request for the referral to the CMA, saying it “remains of the view that the Final Determination does not serve the interests of Thames Water’s customers, communities and the environment.”

The revised statutory deadline (including extension) for the CMA’s final determinations is 17 March 2026. The CMA has asked Ofwat for an extension of up to 6 months, which Ofwat has granted, given the nature and scale of the work involved in five water industry price control references and the associated procedural complexity.

The CMA says it will endeavour to carry out the work in less than 12 months if possible - the CMA’s target date for publication of final determinations is mid-January 2026.

A wide range of interested organisations, including consumer watchdogs, other regulators, business and trade bodies, academic institutions, environmental bodies, NGOs and investors have separately made submissions.

The groups include:

Chambers of Commerce, CBI, Citizens Advice, Consumer Council for Water, Drinking Water Inspectorate, The Rivers Trust, Energy Networks Association, investors in Thames Water, Thames Water, Water UK, CPP Investment and

The disputing companies submitted their statements of case, setting out their arguments and evidence, to the CMA on 21 March 2025. We have published the non-sensitive versions of their main submission documents:

Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, South East Water, Southern Water and Wessex Water submitted their initial statements of case to the competition regulator in March.

Ofwat has now published its overview of responses to the statements of case, together with detailed separate responses to each company’s statement of case.

The CMA will publish any further invitations for third party submissions and updates on the redetermination process on the case page.

Click here to access the CMA page setting out the detailed timetable and all the submission documents online.