Consumer group calls for tougher regulatory actions in water retail

The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) has urged regulators to take tougher actions against retailers who breach their customer commitments as complaints remain high.

The watchdog reported that although written complaints had fallen for the first time since the market opened up, CCW still received four times more complaints than pre-2017.

In its annual report on complaints in the non-household market, CCW said overall written grievances to retailers fell by 19.8 per cent to 14,363, while the number of customers asking CCW to intervene were down by 13.6 per cent year on year.

Water2Business, Business Stream, Pennon were noted as having improved performance and below industry average numbers of complaints in England and Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water performed well in Wales.

However, Clear Business and SES Business Water’s performance had fallen, with the latter triggering six of the seven poor performance indicators during the year.

Year on year decreases were seen by Water Plus (-15 per cent), Castle Water (-2 per cent), Wave (-15 per cent) and Everflow (-75 per cent), but CCW said they all remained above the market average for the numbers of complaints.

Hafren Dyfrdwy saw a rise of 40 per cent in non-household complaints over the past year but also remains below the industry average. CCW said it will monitor and engage regularly with the company to address the uptick.

Three quarters of complaints were related to billing and charge disputes, while administration was the cause of around 11 per cent.

Of the complaints received by CCW, 22 per cent were partly attributable to the wholesaler and 78 per cent were wholly related to the retailers.

There was a rise in the number of cases where CCW had to conduct a formal investigation as the retailer’s complaints procedure had been exhausted without resolution. There were 105 investigations against retailers, which was almost twice the number of 2018/19.

CCW welcomed the reduction in complaints but warned there is more work to be done and said it would press Ofwat to take regulatory action where companies fail to meet their licence conditions.

Rob Light, chair of CCW, said: “Many of the complaints and problems again boil down to a small number of the same poor performers who are falling short of the standards that customers have a right to expect.”

“We now want to see a sustained fall in complaints with retailers quick to resolve disputes and slow to make excuses. Many business customers have had a tough time during coronavirus and the last thing they need is the stress of having to dispute bills or poor service.”

CCW said until retailers resolve issues around switching and billing then the majority of customers would not be receiving the benefits of the non-household market. The watchdog called the signs of improvement encouraging and could “indicate that a turning point may have been reached” if the improvements are sustained.

“It is important now that retailers maintain their focus on improving services to their customers in order that complaints continue to decline across the industry,” the report said.

The report examines complaints from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020.