Having information that is easy to understand and navigate allows customers, and other stakeholders to challenge companies’ performance – and encourages them to deliver better services. This helps everyone build trust and confidence in water.
All monopoly water-only and water and wastewater companies in England and Wales are delivering the levels of service (‘outcomes) that their customers expect of them during 2015-20. Companies developed these outcomes by speaking with and listening to their customers. And we challenged and set companies’ service levels, along with their prices and investment plans, in 2014.
All monopoly water-only and water and wastewater companies in England and Wales publish information about their performance each year. This includes information about:
- how they have done in meeting their targets for delivering their outcomes (‘performance commitments’);
- whether they have earned any rewards and penalties (‘outcome delivery incentives’) for delivering or exceeding the service levels customers expect; and
- (if companies are failing to deliver) how they will put things right.
We use the information that companies to publish to check that customers are getting the price, service and investment that was agreed. This is part of our approach to monitoring and assuring delivery.
We assess the way companies reported their performance against outcomes each year by rating their information quality. We expect companies to report their performance to customers in a transparent way that allows customers and other stakeholders to have confidence in the information their company publishes.
Our assessment of companies performance on key components of outcome delivery and expenditure is considered in our annual reports. Before the report covering 2021-22 this was known as the Service Delivery Report, but it now called the Water Company Performance report.
The sector publishes more information about their performance in Discover Water. This brings together key information about water companies in England and Wales in one place for customers. This includes information about some outcome commitments that can readily be compared between companies, as well as other performance information. A complete set of information on performance against each outcome commitment can be found in the technical information below.
For most companies, rewards and penalties for ‘outcome delivery incentives’ in the period 2015-20 will apply in bills from 2020 onwards. But for three companies, we have agreed that these rewards or penalties can apply in bills from 2017-18 onwards, as they had previously agreed this with their customers. We determine the amount of reward and penalty that these companies must apply every year.