Pipe up: water efficiency and the skills gap

“Regulators and retailers discussed the skills and capacity gap in England in delivering water efficiency”

Can retail competition lead to improvements in water efficiency and who will deliver this? From April 2017, 1.3 million non-household water customers can choose their water and wastewater retailer. Twenty-six retail licences have been granted so far, however questions remain about whether they will have the skills and capacity to deliver the services to enable the water efficiency savings projected by the Cave Review. Many of those moving into the water sector come from wider sales or environmental backgrounds.

Water efficiency has been a key benefit of retail competition in Scotland, where businesses have been able to choose their retailer since 2008.

When CCWater surveyed businesses in England in 2014, most cited perceived benefits of competition including reduced consumption through advice on water use, guidance on water efficiency and water recycling; and improved consumption information from smart meters and monitoring services. Companies with high water consumption and spending – and multi-site companies – also highlighted the promise of heightened corporate social responsibility through water efficiency and recycling measures and green tariffs.

At the Waterwise Retail Competition event in January, regulators and retailers discussed the skills and capacity gap in England in delivering water efficiency. In response, Waterwise is developing a non-household water efficiency training programme based on our training programme for household water efficiency awareness and home visit programmes.

The programme will launch in late March or early April 2017 and include two levels. Level 1 will provide the background to water efficiency, behaviours and retrofit options to support customer call centre staff, business developers and key account managers. Level 2 will build on the previous level but go into more detail about undertaking a water audit with a customer and the practicalities of retrofitting devices – tap aerators, dual flush toilets and urinal controls. We will develop further training courses at Level 3 based on specific industry sectors and processes.

By addressing the skills and capacity gap within the industry we hope to ensure water efficiency remains at the core of service innovation. We also expect customers to benefit more broadly from consistent messaging on water efficiency and benefits across water bills, energy bills and on carbon emissions.