UK water industry regulator Ofwat has reported that although the water and wastewater companies continue to deliver good levels of service to most consumers, there are still areas for concern.  

Ofwat’s  2010/11 “Summary of Performance” report published this morning shows that in many areas the 21 companies in England and Wales are performing well:  

• complaints have fallen by 20 per cent in the last two years and overall satisfaction with the way companies deal with contacts and concerns is high;
• drinking water quality remains up there with the best in Europe; and
• the number of incidents of properties suffering internal sewer flooding was lower than any of the previous four years.

• six companies failed their leakage targets (Anglian, Dŵr Cymru, Northumbrian - North East operating area, Severn Trent, Southern and Yorkshire);
• seven companies need to do more to maintain their underground infrastructure (Anglian, United Utilities, Northumbrian, Severn Trent, Southern, Veolia Water Central, Yorkshire); and
• a high number of supply interruptions to customers. Ofwat has particular concerns about the performance of Severn Trent in this area.   

In June, Ofwat announced that fifteen water companies met their leakage targets in 2010/11, reducing leakage by a total of 18 Ml/d (million litres a day) –but six companies failed to meet leakage targets.  

Although investigations showed that none of the failures threatened customers’ water supplies, Ofwat take such failures seriously. As a result, Yorkshire Water has committed to spending around £33 million of their own money tackling leakage and improving their pipe network. Southern Water will return £5 million to its customers for failing to deliver its planned reduction in leakage. Ofwat has put Anglian, Dŵr Cymru, Northumbrian - North East, and Severn Trent on report for their leakage failures.   

Regina Finn, Ofwat Chief Executive Officer said:   

“Customers tell us that leakage is an issue that matters to them. They need to have confidence that their company is doing their part to use water wisely. These failures send a poor signal about how companies value water.  

“Leakage has reduced by around a third since its mid-90s peak. Most companies stepped up to the challenge of tackling leakage during another very cold winter. Those who didn’t, need to get back on track. Companies will be paying out around £38 million from their own pockets to fix these problems.”  

Ofwat has previously taken action against companies following serious and consistent underperformance on leakage. Thames Water (in 2006) and Severn Trent (in 2007) committed a combined total of an extra £195m of their own money to address failures. Since then, both companies have significantly improved their leakage performance.

Companies are performing well on customer service 

Ofwat has also published a report on the results of companies’ performance on customer service. This is the first year Ofwat has published results of its new customer service measure - the Service Incentive Mechanism (SIM). The SIM aims to make companies more customer-focused and improve customer service.  

The results show that in general companies are performing well, but that some companies need to improve to catch up with the best performers.  

The overall number of complaints is falling, with a 20 per cent decrease in the number of written complaints in the last two years. Customer satisfaction with the overall manner in which companies handled their contacts and concerns was high. Ofwat asked 17,000 customers to give their view of how well their company did on a scale of 1 to 5 (where 5 indicates they were ‘very satisfied’). The average score of all the companies was 4.2. This ranged from 3.79 (United Utilities) to 4.59 (Veolia Water East).