Ofwat has today published its first five-year business plan for helping to build and maintain customers’ and wider society’s trust and confidence in water and wastewater services.
Ofwat has already set out the shared vision for the sector as one where customers and wider society in England and Wales have trust and confidence in vital public water and wastewater services. Its business plan sets out what it plans to deliver and how it will work to do it in 2015-16 to 2019-20.
Ofwat’s priorities for 2015-16 are to:
- implement Water Act reforms and prepare for the 2019 price review;
- maintain customer confidence through a period of change;
- maintain investor confidence through a period of change;
- monitor the sector’s performance; and
- ensure that Ofwat has the skills, experience, systems, processes and culture that support our new strategy.
The plan also sets out Ofwat’s plan to continue to transform how it regulates the sector by using a broader range of tools, its principles of economic regulation and new ways of operating and delivering its work.
Cathryn Ross, Ofwat Chief Executive, said:
“Our achievements last year, such as a price review that delivered more for less, provide us with a strong foundation for the next five years. But we need to go further. We have an ambitious work programme to inform, support and challenge the water sector to maintain customer and wider society’s trust and confidence in vital public water and wastewater services. But we can’t deliver trust in water alone. That’s why we are publishing our plans. Not only does it provide greater transparency to our stakeholders, but also highlight areas where we could work in partnership together.”
Bev Messinger, Ofwat’s Senior Director, Operations said:
“The sector needs to change culture and innovate to succeed. And Ofwat needs to do the same. We have already begun to transform how we operate to work in more flexible and efficient ways, so that we are able to respond quickly to new circumstances. We will be building on this in years to come, with a particular focus on developing our people so we have the rights skills and experience to deliver. But our work is just one part of securing trust in water, so we will be also be working closely with other organisations – such as the UK Regulators Network –and seeking partnerships where this delivers the best results. We will focus our work on protecting customers’ and society’s interests.”
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Notes to editors
- 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.
- The UK Regulators Network (UKRN) is a group of UK economic regulators who work together to ensure effective cooperation between sectors. Its work does not interfere with the independence or specific goals of each regulator.
- Media enquiries to Ofwat Press Office on:
Benedict Fisher 0121 644 7642 / [email protected]