Yorkshire Water failed to automatically compensate cut-off customers

Yorkshire Water “failed to automatically grant compensation to those entitled to it”, following a major supply and pressure incident last year.

An official incident report concludes that failing to compensate affected customers “appears to contradict” promises made within the water company’s customer charter.

However, Yorkshire Water claims that in line with its customer commitments “an incident of this nature involves a technical review process that uses […] engineering knowledge of [the] network […] to identify to what extent customers were impacted so they are fairly compensated for this”.

The incident took place between 27 October and 13 November 2023. In total 12,700 properties in Goole, Yorkshire were affected by problems with water supply and water pressure, including 661 customers on the Priority Services Register.

The initial issue was caused by a pipe burst affecting a water tower, with multiple subsequent bursts occurring during repressurising of the system.

Yorkshire Water said it has so far paid out £37,000 in compensation to those who have applied for it.

However, the incident report – compiled for Ofwat and CCW – questions whether automatic payments should have instead been made.

It states: “Participants were upset that what appears to be promised in the charter does not align with their actual experiences.

“In the charter, Yorkshire Water appeared to guarantee automatic compensation to everyone affected and further compensation if disruption continues for longer periods.

“This triggered confusion and frustration among participants who felt these obligations had not been met.”

It adds: “Some concluded that they should have received much higher compensation than they did.

“Most participants perceived that Yorkshire Water was evading responsibility by not making compensation automatic.

“When one respondent asked on the phone why it was not offered to everyone, Yorkshire Water explained that the incident was an ‘unprecedented situation’; the respondent deemed this an unacceptable excuse.”

The report also raises concerns about the lack of communication made to the public, both over the compensation process and during the incident itself.

It adds that during the supply incident the “vast majority” of affected households “received no direct communication and the information available from other sources was insufficient, with no projected timescale for resolution”.

The report concludes: “Participants’ overall assessment was that Yorkshire Water had not handled the incident well, with limited and ineffectual communication at the heart of their frustration. However, where customers had contacted Yorkshire Water by phone, frustrations were often alleviated by high quality staff interactions.”

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “We know there were some learnings from how we handled this incident; we’ve taken these on board and made some changes to improve the service our customers would receive if this incident were to happen again.

“No one should be out of pocket due to an incident like this one, we have already paid out over £37,000 in compensation.

“We have established a community fund for Goole where local charities and community groups have applied for funding for projects in the town; this is in addition to compensation and is our way of apologising to local residents for the disturbance they experienced.”

The spokesperson added that Yorkshire is working through its technical review process to determine additional payments for customers.

While admitting that this process “has taken longer than anticipated”, the spokesperson added that “this is not us dragging our heels” and said that the process will be “sorted in the coming weeks”.