We are keen to engage with stakeholders to help us improve our approach to delivering the right outcomes; our approach to assessing costs; and our approach to assessing allowed returns at PR24. We have established working groups to engage with companies and other stakeholders, where we can discuss how to address concerns as well as incorporate emerging issues and long-term ambitions into PR24.
On this page:
- PR24 Working groups
- Data requests
PR24 Working groups
Cost assessment working group
The role of this group is to engage with stakeholders to help us improve our approach to cost assessment at PR24 and beyond.
We made significant improvements to our cost assessment approach in PR19. We are therefore keen to build on this approach for PR24, taking account of the lessons learnt from PR19. However, we are also keen to hear views on new approaches, including any changes that might take more than one price review period to implement.
In April 2022 we issued an information notice, IN 22/02 Cost assessment data requests, setting out requests for data, to inform and support the development of cost assessment and related areas for PR24. These data requests have been discussed extensively with water companies and in many cases reflect direct requests from water companies to consider additional data in our cost assessment approach. A summary of the request and the supporting documentation is provided in the data requests section at the bottom of this page.
We have also published the cost assessment datasets.
Cost assessment working group meetings and workshops
Each meeting centres around particular themes / topics, which we announce ahead of the meeting to allow members to identify whether or not to attend, and who they should send.
Outcomes working group
Looking ahead to future price reviews, we are considering how we can build on lesson learnt so we can best meet the needs of customers, the environment and communities – not just over the next five years but over the longer term. The contribution from this group is helping Ofwat to propose our approach, which we will also consult on more widely.
Measures of experience workshops
We are currently reviewing the measures of experience (MeXs) for PR24, find out more on our dedicated review page. Our workshops involve water companies and customer representatives.
| Meeting date | Topics discussed | Meeting slides | Meeting summary |
| 7 March 2023 | Reviewing C-MeX and D-MeX | Meeting slides from 7 March 2023 available here | Meeting summary from 7 March available here |
| 27 June 2023 | Reviewing C-MeX for PR24: detailed implementation issues |
Meeting slides from 27 June available here | Meeting notes from 27 June available here |
| 15 November 2023 | Reviewing C-MeX for PR24: use of cross-sector benchmarks | Meeting slides from 15 November available here | TBC |
Risk and return workshop
We used our risk and return workshop to outline some of the main points behind our thinking in the PR24 and beyond: Discussion paper on risk and return, and to hear the views of stakeholders on our emergent thinking as we develop the next price review for water companies in England and Wales.
Our ambition for PR24 remains to align the interests of water companies and investors with those of customers, so that the sector is attractive to investors, but companies can only earn high returns from great performance.
| Workshop date | Topics discussed | Workshop slides | Workshop summary |
| 20 January 2022 | Balance of risk and RoRE risk ranges
Return on equity RCV and notional capital structure Cost of debt Financeability Financial modelling |
Workshop slides from 20 January 2022 available here | Workshop summary from 20 January 2022 available here |
Environmental Working Group
| Workshop date | Topics discussed | Workshop slides | Workshop summary |
| 12 April 2023 | Approach to storm overflow | Workshop slides | Workshop summary |
| 22 May 2023 | Roundtable on River Water Quality | Workshop slides | Workshop summary |
MOSL led PR24 stakeholder workshop
We used this MOSL facilitated workshop to outline some of the key policy thinking across PR24 and for retailers and wholesalers to provide input into the PR24 process from the business retail market perspective.
| Workshop date | Topics discussed | Workshop slides | Workshop summary |
| 13 December 2021 | PR24 | N/A | Workshop summary from 13 December 2021 available here |
Water resources workshop
We used our water resources workshop to present our emerging thinking on incentivising efficient investment and use of water resources in PR24 and to hear views from companies as we develop our PR24 approach.
| Workshop date | Topics discussed | Workshop slides | Workshop summary |
| 29 March 2022 | Investment risk in water resources
Direct Procurement for Customers Water trading incentives |
Workshop slides from 29 March 2022 available here | Workshop summary from 29 March 2022 available here |
Data requests
April 2022: IN 22/02 Cost assessment data requests
This information notice sets out requests for data in a number of areas, to inform and support the development of cost assessment and related areas for PR24. These data requests have been discussed extensively with water companies and in many cases reflects direct requests from water companies to consider additional data in our cost assessment approach. Through the collaborative working process these data requests have been refined to provide a balance between the minimum necessary to adequately inform improved understanding of these areas while minimising the additional regulatory reporting burden on companies.
The areas covered by the data request are set out in the table below in rows 1-7.
May 2022: Network reinforcement data request
This document accompanies an information request that will collect additional network reinforcement data from incumbent water and wastewater companies, to support cost assessment of this expenditure at PR24. The data request has been discussed extensively with water companies and reflects a direct ask from water companies to consider additional data collection in our approach to growth expenditure and cost drivers. We are not intending to use the information for the purpose of setting reconciliation adjustments, due to endogeneity issues.
The areas covered by the data request are set out in the table below in row 8.
| No | Data request | Purpose | Deadline | Template & guidance |
| 1 | Base modelling data | To help inform the assessment of base costs at PR24. | 15 July 2022 | Base and residential retail data request |
| 2 | Residential retail bad debt data | To help inform the assessment of residential retail costs at PR24. | 15 July 2022 | Base and residential retail data request |
| 3 | Water balance data | To help inform development of PR24 performance commitments relating to reduction in demand. | 15 August 2022 | Enhancement and water balance data request |
| 4 | Enhancement modelling data | To capture outturn cost and benefit data for enhancement activities currently underway | 15 August 2022 | Enhancement and water balance data request |
| 5 | Leakage reporting data | To help inform our approach to assessing company proposals in water resource management plans and PR24 business plans. | 15 August 2022 | Leakage data request |
| 6 | Developer services site-specific information | To help inform our approach to regulating developer services at PR24. | 15 August 2022 | Developer services site-specific data request
Developer services information request – supporting guidance |
| 7 | Growth expenditure data | To help inform the assessment of growth costs at PR24. | 15 August 2022 | Growth expenditure data request |
| 8 | Network reinforcement data | To help inform the assessment of network reinforcement costs at PR24. | 29 August 2022 | Network reinforcement data request data request |
Published reports
Average Pumping Head: data quality improvement report
Average Pumping Head data quality improvement report – Letter to companies
Average Pumping Head (APH) Appendix C – Maturity Matrix