The opening of the business retail market in April 2027 afforded around 1.2 million eligible business customers in England the ability to choose their provider of water and wastewater retail services.
Since market opening the role of wholesalers in the business sector has changed with retailers taking on the provision of retail activities. Retailers are now responsible for customer-facing activities but wholesalers have retained responsibility for providing wholesale services to business customers. Wholesalers play a key role in facilitating the delivery of a good business customer experience.
Ofwat’s PR24 final methodology set out its decision to include BR-MeX as a new common performance commitment for the English water companies to capture both the experience of end business customers and the experience of retailers when engaging with wholesalers. BR-MeX will focus on incentivising water companies to provide an excellent customer experience to business customers and to retailers in the market.
Ofwat, in collaboration with MOSL, will pilot all aspects of the B-MeX and R-MeX surveys in 2023-2024, followed by a shadow run in spring 2024 to ensure the incentive mechanism is robust for implementation and commencement from April 2025.
The table below outline key activities and publications related to the development of the BR-MeX incentive mechanism.
Topic |
Timing/Dates |
Documents |
Further information |
| BR-MeX industry workshop | 13 April 2023 | BR-MeX workshop meeting note 13 April 2023 | |
| BR-MeX working group | 11 May 2023 | BR-MeX working group – meeting note May 2023 |