Ofwat calls for freeze-thaw review

Ofwat has written to water companies for a review of how services, assets and customers were impacted during the mid-December freeze-thaw event that left thousands of homes without supplies.

John Russel, senior director at Ofwat, said the regulator wanted to assess and review the preparedness of companies and how well assets performed amid concerns that customers were not properly supported.

He called for companies to provide details of how they were impacted by the weather in their area including how many properties and customers experienced problems and how long it took to resolve outages.

“We want to understand how well companies’ assets performed during the freeze-thaw event and whether an appropriate level of resilience was demonstrated,” Russell said. “We also have concerns that some companies may have failed to support their customers in the manner we would expect.”

He asked firms for information on how incidents were responded to and how customers were communicated with about it. Ofwat highlighted the need to set out what was done to identify and support vulnerable customers as well as what arrangements were in place for compensation to anyone affected.

Following the 2018 Beast from the East, Ofwat compiled recommendations in a review Out in the Cold and Russell said companies should demonstrate if these learnings had been implemented.

“Where we believe that companies – individually or collectively – have let customers down, we will consider what further action should be taken,” Russell said.

In December, water supplies to customers of Southern and South East were disrupted with thousands of consumers experiencing low pressure or were without water. Supply pipes can be vulnerable to leaks and bursts when following a cold weather spell. Pipes that have frozen or become brittle are more likely to start to leak as the cold subsides to warmer weather.