‘Lessons must be learnt’ as water competition draws near

The water industry must learn from other sectors that have adopted increased competition, business customers have said in research carried out on behalf of the Consumer Council for Water (CCWater).

The consumer watchdog said that business customers are generally in favour of competition within the market but lessons must be learnt from sectors such as energy and telecommunications. 

All non-household water and sewerage customers in England will be able to switch their retail supplier from 2017 but customers do not want contracts that could lock them in or rollover automatically. They also want to avoid complex tariffs, which has been drawn widespread criticism in the energy sector. 

CCWater says it will use the findings of the ‘Uncharted Waters’ report and work alongside Open Water, Defra and Ofwat in order to design customer-focused retail market.

The research also revealed concerns from customers about switching away from their current supplier. Many businesses would prefer to renegotiate with their current supplier, while some customers want to wait and see how the market develops before taking the plunge.

Other findings of the report included the fact that most customers are happy with their current water company but are concerned about the lack of technological innovation, account management and communication.

In a statement CCWater said: “Fairness, simplicity, transparency and flexibility should be the key factors underlying the design of the competitive market.”

The research, which was based on workshops with 62 businesses customers and a further 18 face to face in depth interviews, also highlighted that there was a lack of awareness about the introduction of competition within the sector.