Yorkshire Water launches pilot scheme to cut customer bills

Yorkshire Water is to review the accounts of up to 100,000 customers who it thinks could save money from having a water meter installed.

As part of a new pilot scheme, the utility firm will offer customers a two-year trial of using a meter to those it believes would help cut their bills.

During the trial period, the firm will assess whether the customers have saved money and if they have not, it will switch them back to the unmetered rate.

The firm currently provides water to 2 million households.

Of these, 1.2 million households are currently on a metered supply and the rest are billed on the basis of the rateable value of their property.

The 100,000 customers who will be approached to take part in the scheme have been identified by Yorkshire Water’s own analysis, which has determined that they are currently living in a property with a high rateable value with a small number of occupants.

“Yorkshire Water customers already have one of the lowest bills in the sector, but we want to go beyond that and ensure that individually they are getting the best possible deal,” said director of finance, markets and regulation, Liz Barber.

“As we only really have two tariffs, that’s usually about assessing whether or not they would be better off with a meter.

“We are a monopoly so customers do not get a choice of who supplies their water – they cannot go on a price comparison website to find out if they could be better off. Because of this we have an extra responsibility. It’s not enough for us to wait for them to contact us and request a meter, really looking after our customers means that we should proactively contact them and ensure that they are not paying more than they need to.”

If the pilot project is successful, the company is considering rolling the principle out to all its unmetered customers as part of a “price promise” at the heart of its proposals for the next five-year period.

Under this proposal, which would be an industry first, the company would commit to review the accounts of approximately 650,000 customers who do not have meters to identify those who might be better off on a metered supply.

In addition the companies looking again at its approach to customers in financial difficulty who are finding it difficult to pay their bills.

Barber explained: “We know that around one in five of our customers potentially has problems in paying their water bill. By using new analytic techniques, it’s possible for us to proactively identify those customers who might be at risk of being in this position.  We can then contact them to identify what alternatives might be open to them or see if they qualify for one of our reduced social tariffs.”