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PN 18/08 | 25 June 2008 |
Ofwat response to the Pitt Review |
Ofwat today welcomed the Independent Review into last summer's floods, led by Sir Michael Pitt.
Commenting on the final report, George Day, Ofwat's Director of Network Regulation, said:
"We recognise the importance for consumers of the issues that Sir Michael is raising around flood risk and resilience of essential services. We worked with his review team. We will now examine the full set of recommendations carefully and take them into account when we set price limits for water and sewerage companies next year for the period 2010 to 2015.
"The experiences of the 2007 floods point to a need to focus on genuinely critical assets, such as those which are the sole source of vital services. We recently published guidance for each water company on how to assess flooding risks and identify the best solutions. We expect each company to show that it has understood the risks and identified the right set of measures to improve flood protection.
"Ofwat will review company proposals to address flooding risk as part of their investment priorities for the period to 2015. These will be set out in draft business plans to be submitted to Ofwat in August. Summaries of the plans will be made public and consumers will be consulted on all aspects."
Notes to Editors:
1. The Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) is the economic regulator of water and sewerage companies in England and Wales. It exercises its powers in a way that it judges will protect the interests of consumers, promote value and safeguard future water and sewerage services by allowing efficient companies to carry out their functions properly, and finance them.
2. In the current five-year price review period to 2010 companies are expected to invest nearly £1.2 billion to safeguard homes against the risk of sewer flooding.
3. Media enquiries to Ofwat Press Office on: 0121 625 1442/1496/1416.
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