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Service and delivery – performance of the water companies in England and Wales 2008-09

Our service and delivery report sets out how water companies performed in 2008-09 in delivering services to consumers. It includes our analysis of companies' performance and where we are taking action – if necessary – on behalf of consumers.

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Headlines

Company performance

In general, the companies delivered good levels of service and reliability to consumers. But there is no room for complacency.
All of the companies met their leakage targets. This is despite much of England and Wales experiencing a particularly cold winter.
The companies have continued to focus on reducing the number of pollution incidents, resulting in one of the best overall years.
Most companies have improved the way they maintain their assets and longer-term indicators of serviceability. Some companies, however, still do not have stable serviceability.
Customers previously affected by poor performance from some companies are now receiving better service. This has led to fewer complaints across England and Wales.
Aggregate capital investment at £4.7 billion was 14% higher than we assumed at the 2004 price review.
Overall investment is still some 4% behind our expectations for the first four years of the current price limit period (2005-10).
However, the companies have caught up on capital maintenance, which is 10% above the level we expected at this stage of the price review.

Regulatory action

We completed enforcement action against Severn Trent Water and Thames Water by applying the proposed financial penalties reported in our 2007-08 report.
We also fined Tendring Hundred Water £42,000 in October 2008 following an accounting error that led the company to misreport information in its 2006 June return.
We secured a formal undertaking from United Utilities Water to address problems at properties in the Penketh area of Warrington affected by sewer flooding.
United Utilities Water has put in place new systems to investigate and record sewer flooding incidents to bring them in line with industry best practice. The company acknowledges that failings that led to it reporting inaccurate data have disadvantaged customers. It has therefore provided a formal undertaking to assess and offer mitigation measures, at its shareholders’ expense, to the 1,600 properties on its registers of properties at risk of sewer flooding, by September 2012.