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Ofwat has appointed a new director for market opening in the second major overhaul of its plans, abandoning a scheme to appoint the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, led by Alan Sutherland, to oversee the programme, after it was voted down by the Scottish regulator’s board.
In a letter sent to water company chief executives today, Ofwat chief executive Cathryn Ross revealed the appointment of the new director, whose name will be announced in March, and who will report directly to her.
Ofwat will also go out to tender for a commercial delivery partner within the next couple of months, and begin a series of independent “gateway reviews” of the programme, designed to give the sector confidence.
Market Operator Services Limited, a private company set up by Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water and United Utilities, will procure the central IT systems for the market by April. It is expected to become the market operator in due course.
Ross acknowledged the contribution Sutherland had made to the programme. She said the plan to appoint WICS as delivery partner had “not been possible.” The move was vetoed by the WICS’s board at a meeting in January, although negotiations between the two regulators had reached an advanced stage.
This is the second major change in the delivery arrangements for market opening in 2017. Last August, Ofwat announced that it was winding down Open Water Markets Limited, the body initially charged with market opening, after the Treasury refused to allow it to be classified as a private body.
Asked by Utility Week whether the market would still open on time in 2017, Ross said: “I think so. It’s tight – there’s no room for any further slippage, there’s not any contingency in the timescale.”
In an interview with Utility Week last December, Sutherland, who oversaw the opening of the Scottish water market, outlined his plans for the delivery partner arrangement. He said at the time: “I think it’s entirely sensible that there be collaborative working between regulators… what’s the point of reinventing the wheel?”
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