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Water firms to fund market opening awareness campaign

The water companies will fund a national campaign to raise awareness of market opening, as part of a wider communications and PR plan.

In the latest Open Water update, Ofwat retail market opening director Adam Cooper said: “A lot of our focus is now on raising awareness of the market for customers.

“In collaboration with the Open Water partners and the water companies, Ofwat believes that all eligible customers should have access to impartial and reliable information, enabling them to feel confident about the market and able to make an informed decision about their choice of water retail services provider.”

He added: “By the time you read this, it is likely that an agency will have been appointed to run the campaign, and water companies will already be using the brand guidelines and toolkit [which was] sent out last month.”

Also in the update, Cooper drew attention to the 13 retailers currently licensed to supply water and wastewater retail services from April next year.


IMAGE: current licensed retailers

Source: Open Water website


He also pointed out that Open Water has held a workshop with third party intermediaries (TPIs), to share thinking on their role in the market and on the TPI market in general.

Stakeholders discussed the potential regulatory options for providing customer protection in relation to TPIs in the new business retail water market.

“Before the end of the year, we plan to open the consultation on our proposals for a voluntary code of conduct for third party intermediaries,” Cooper said.