Water companies fear being over-burdened by reporting duties

Water companies have raised concerns that they will become over-burdened by reporting duties during the next five years.

The concerns were raised by two companies after Ofwat unveiled proposals to strengthen reporting on a number of areas for PR24.

Areas which Ofwat is proposing greater reporting include:

• Household affordability support
• Information on payments made to household customers in accordance with the Guaranteed Standards Scheme
• Additional reporting on storm overflows
• Additional requirement to report on energy consumption and its associated monetary cost in the bioresources part of the value chain
• The mandatory provision of a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis for operational and embedded greenhouse gas emissions.

While most respondents were supportive of the proposals, two companies raised the issue of “reporting burden”.

Ofwat’s consultation summary adds: “They highlighted that in addition to requesting new data items there may be scope to reduce the data which is being requested in some areas where it may no longer be needed.”

Ofwat states that it would look to see if there were any redundant reporting requirements which could be removed to ease the burden on water companies.

However it adds: “We need to carefully balance the burden which the reporting of new data imposes on companies with the need to ensure we have the right information to hold companies properly to account and inform our work on key policy areas.”

Two respondents also raised concerns about the timing of the consultation, saying it would have been helpful if it had been carried out earlier with a longer consultation period.

In response, Ofwat reveals that it had planned to launch the consultation earlier in the year “however our work on PR24, amongst other things, once again delayed the consultation”.

“We acknowledge these issues and will endeavour to engage earlier with companies and allow for a longer consultation period, if possible, in the future,” Ofwat’s response states.

“Additionally, in terms of the length of the consultation period we need to consider the trade off between giving companies a reasonable length of time to respond versus giving companies certainty over requirements as soon as possible.”

Senior figures at water companies have also raised concerns with Ofwat’s revised timetable for ruling on business plans, labelling it as “very problematic” and “borderline ridiculous”.