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Regulator hopes that measure will repeat the success of SIM
The new measure of customer satisfaction for developer services, D-MeX, will lead to improved service, according to Ofwat, which consulted on the measure as part of the proposed methodology for the next price review, PR19.
Ofwat associate director Jon Ashley told Utility Week that Ofwat hopes the new measure will replicate the success of the Service Incentive Mechanism (SIM), which saw service levels across the industry rise in the years after its introduction.
He said: “When SIM was introduced there was a big jump in terms of performance just by the fact we were incentivising it, particularly the worst performing companies, which really improved their service, then the top ones improved more gradually. We expect that just by incentivising it companies would improve quite quickly. That’s what we would be aiming for – that companies, to do well, would have to improve their service quality to developers, self-lay providers and New Appointments and Variations [non-incumbent water suppliers that are appointed to specific geographic areas].”
Ashley also responded to calls from Fair Water Connections (FWC), the body representing self-lay providers, to use D-MeX to incentivise water companies to facilitate better competition in connections.
He said: “This is feedback we will take into account as we look to go forward with D-MeX. We did see D-Mex originally as addressing the issue of poor quality of service to customers and that’s what our focus was, it wasn’t aimed to do with this issue, but that feedback will feed into our thoughts going forward.”
Read Utility Week’s analysis, ‘The truth about developer services’ here
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