About Consultation
This consultation concerns our process for assessing applications for new appointments and variations.
The regulatory framework allows for water companies’ areas of appointment to be varied and for new appointments to be granted. Water companies apply to us to make these variations.
We refer to these as “new appointments and variations”. This is typically undertaken when a developer decides it would prefer a different water company to serve a new development than the current incumbent water company.
We are proposing an update to our guidance and policy statements which relate to our assessment process. The proposed updates would introduce a requirement that applicants for sites in Wales clearly evidence how the applicant serving the site rather than the current incumbent water company would be beneficial to customers. This change is to comply with the Strategic Priorities and Objectives Statement to Ofwat issued by the Welsh Government.
We are also looking for stakeholder views on the potential for introducing a similar requirement for applications for sites in England in the future.
Consultation closes on 29 June 2023.