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About Ofwat
Household consumers
Non-household consumers
What's new
Benefits for consumers
Some of the benefits of regulation since privatisation include:
- Bills are more than a third lower than they would have been without Ofwat.
- Leakage is down by 35% since its peak in the mid 1990s.
- Compliance with environmental standards is higher.
- Water quality has improved.
- Since 1989, £98 billion has been invested by the companies in maintaining and improving assets and services.
Customer service is significantly better than in the early 1990s. For example, only 4,825 properties (0.02%) are now at risk of low water pressure, compared with 344,259 (1.6%) properties in 1990-91.

