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Dee Valley Water has topped the industry’s first league table which monitors company performance on meeting developer services targets with a perfect score.
The water only company met 100 per cent of its targets between April to June, according to the data published by Water UK on Wednesday.
Welsh Water was the best performing company at meeting the sewerage service standards, meeting 99 per cent of the targets.
By contrast, Affinity Water was the worst performing water company, meeting only 42 per cent of its targets for the quarter. A spokesperson said the performance was “disappointing” and apologised for “not meeting the standards expected of us”.
The company launched a recovery plan in May to rectify this by increasing resources to its customer contact, administration and construction teams.
Thames Water (77 per cent) and Southern Water (75 per cent) were the next worst performing companies at meeting the water service standards, as well having the lowest success at hitting the targets on the sewerage side – 89 per cent and 83 per cent respectively.
Overall, the average rating for meeting the developer targets for water services was 89 per cent, with sewerage services slightly higher at 94 per cent.
The aim of the standards, which were voluntarily agreed to by the industry in December last year, is to allow developers to compare the performance of the water and sewerage companies over a range of services including handling enquiries, providing quotations, connections, and the adoption of developer laid assets.
Water UK chief executive Pamela Taylor said: “Setting and publishing water standards is the latest stage of the industry’s commitment continuously to improve services for developers.
“Further work is currently underway to find ways to improve interactions with the planning system as well as develop new customer satisfaction measures.”
The Home Builders Federation (HBF) technical director Dave Mitchell said: “This is the first time that such a comprehensive range of statistics has been gathered. Such information will prove extremely useful as we look to drive up improved service levels throughout the industry.”
Sutton and East Surrey Water is the only major water company not included, but it has recently signed up to the initiative and will be included in the second quarter results (July to September).
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