Thames admits ‘long way to go’ with transformation programme

Thames Water has acknowledged it still has “a long way to go” to transform under performing areas of the business after the first six months of its improvement plan focusing on customer service and pollution incidents.

There has been 75% change in the executive team since September 2020, with the final member Norma Dove-Edwin joining as digital transformation director next year.

The company launched its transformation plans in March this year to “fix the basics, raise the bar and shape the future” under the leadership of Sarah Bentley, who reported the organisation’s progress under each for the six months to October in its interim financial results.

Bentley said the company’s performance is not currently on track for serious pollutions, sewer flooding or blockages. Total pollution performance improved year on year but further work is needed to meet the target. The company is investing in wastewater treatment, digital tools and innovation as well as resilience.

“We’re taking a progressive stance on river health. It is unacceptable for any sewage to enter rivers, from both a public health and environmental perspective, and we’re challenging the status quo,” Bentley said. “It will take time and money to stop wastewater entering rivers, because our existing infrastructure wasn’t designed for the increasing pressure from population growth and climate change, but we’re changing the conversation and are taking steps in the right direction.”

The organisation has invested in network monitoring, including sensors, better processing of data and improved alerts. During AMP7 it will spend £1.2billion on its sewage treatment works to help tackle spills and will have each of its 468 combined sewer overglow (CSO) points providing usage alerts by the end of next year.

The company admitted said it still has “a long way” to go to deliver the customer service deserved by billpayers and has introduced a taskforce to join up how it delivers for customers to bring it out from the bottom of Ofwat’s C-Mex league table.

Thames implemented a series of reforms including: an escalations team to resolve consumer issues on the first contact, which has lowered household complaints 42% year on year; a new billing process that has reduced customer contacts by 35%; and increased use of online platforms that have brought “significant improvements” to the online experience. These have led to a 52% fall in complaints being referred to water watchdog CCW in the six months to October 2021.

Beyond “getting the basics right”, the company said it has worked to “raise the bar” by making operations more efficient, including a major overhaul of how networks are managed that will bring more activity in-house and allow issues to be resoled more effectively.

The company also began using detection devices for leakage and sewer depth monitors to identify blockages. Thames found and cleared 800 blocks before they caused any impact on customers.

Elsewhere. the company has invested 26% more in its asset base year on year, under the direction of capital delivery director Francis Paonessa who joined in April. The additional £300 million was allocated with conditional allowances in Thames’ PR19 final determination to improve resilience in east London where population growth is predicted to see an extra 1.9 million people using stretched assets.

This week Ofwat confirmed the company will pay more than £11 million to business customers and water retailers following a data error that caused 13,800 customers to be billed incorrectly.

As well as repayments, Ofwat set a nominal fine of £1 for the company as well as a series of internal undertakings to strengthen how market data is handled.

The company’s half-year financial results showed a pre-tax loss of £581 million, compared to the same period last year (£200 million loss), with revenue up £100 million year-on-year to £1.1 billion.

On its key performance indicators, Thames revealed average water supply interruptions were down to 3 minutes 46 seconds, from 3 minutes 54 last year. However, leakage rose from 538.7 megalitres per day to 577.6.