Affinity first to lay out PR24 plans

Affinity Water has set out its intention to spend 77% more on its asset management programme during the next five-year spending period (AMP8).

In total, Affinity has revealed plans to spend £2.55 billion between 2025 and 2030, more than £1 billion than its total expenditure set aside for the current asset management period (AMP7).

This increased spending would amount to average household bill increases from £204 in 2025 to £264 by 2030 in £15 annual increments.

Affinity is the first water company to outline its PR24 spending plans.

The company published the proposed plan to seek customer and stakeholder feedback ahead of the October deadline for draft submissions to Ofwat.

The plan breaks down where the additional spending will be made and how it will add to household costs.

Improving overall resilience of water supplies will add around £19 to annual bills, with £57 million set aside for targeted leakage reduction solutions aimed at saving 22.4 million litres of water a day.

Affinity also sets out its intentions to enhance its customer service offerings through better online information including web and mobile access to leakage data.

The company has also proposed a bespoke performance commitment to protect rivers through an abstraction incentive mechanism.

Affinity aims to reduce the amount of water it takes from chalk aquifers over the next five years by 35 million litres each day as part of longer term plans to drive down abstraction by 192 million litres by 2050.

In the short term, water savings will be made through the leakage reduction programme and reducing consumer demand by 50 million litres daily by 2030 – including rolling out a further 400,000 smart meters to households and businesses. Longer term goals will be met through intra-regional water transfer options such as the Grand Union Canal, from Severn Trent’s region, and the Thames to Affinity Transfer.

Commitments for PR24 include 33% leakage reduction from 2019/20 baseline; lowering per capita consumption (PCC) by 9%, and business demand by 5%. It will lower operational greenhouse gas emissions by 9% compared to 2021/22 as well as achieve 100% discharge permit compliance.

To keep bills affordable the company plans to continue its support packages including debt support scheme, reduced tariffs, payment breaks, free repairs of customer supply pipes, water efficiency checks to lower consumption and bills.

Affinity said the plan has been developed based on feedback of thousands of customers and stakeholders. Feedback showed customers want the company to reduce abstractions at pace, but it must be balanced with affordability concerns.

Improvements to customer contact experiences with better online access via web and mobile to information as well as enhanced communications and updates on areas customers said were important to them – namely leakage and affordability. This will be measured with the ambition to be a top eight performer for customer experience.