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Ofwat will probe awareness amongst micro, small and medium-sized businesses of the opening of the water retail market in England.
There are now fewer than six months to the opening of the market. The regulator has commissioned a national survey to gauge levels of awareness and understanding of this significant change in the water market.
Using almost 2000 telephone surveys and almost 100 more in-depth interviews, the survey gets underway today (10 October).
Results will be published in the autumn and will provide Ofwat with a clear picture of levels of awareness, broken down by size and type of business and geographical area.
The regulator’s senior director for communications said Claire Forbes said: “One of the factors for a successful market is customer awareness and understanding and for Ofwat to be assured that exists, we felt it was important to firstly measure it and then look to what may be required to improve it.
“Ofwat wants to ensure that all eligible customers have access to reliable, impartial information about the market, free from company influence. This will build customer confidence in the market and enable informed decision-making by customers about their choice of water services retailer.”
Following due process, the bid to undertake the survey was won by Swansea-based Opinion Research Services.
Opinion’s head of research Kester Holmes said: “We are delighted to be able to undertake this important research on behalf of Ofwat. In recent years we have worked with the many large utility companies and international energy companies and we know from our experience that to have a better understanding of how aware customers in business, charities and the public sector, are of the forthcoming market is an important factor in its success. This survey comes at a pivotal time in the programme to open the water retailing market to non-household customers.”
From April next year about 1.2 million eligible business, charity and public sector customers will be able to choose their water and wastewater retailer. Retailing services include billing, metering and water efficiency measures.
The project to open the water retail market is being overseen by the Open Water programme – a partnership between Ofwat, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the market operator, Market Operator Services Limited (MOSL).
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