Understanding non-household customers’ views of incumbent water companies exiting the retail market
The main aims of the research were to find out non-household customer views about the sale or transfer of their account to a new retailer with the market opening in April 2017, and whether different sized organisations held different views about retail exit.
The key findings are:
- Many businesses’ preferred outcome would be for their water company not to exit the retail market
- Customers did see more advantages of a transfer to a licensed retailer that is associated with their local water company, rather than a retailer who is unrelated, such as ‘Tesco Water’
Key concerns:
- Retail exit will lead to higher prices and customers will be unfairly locked into a contract with a new retailer that they are unable to leave
- How long protections stay in place, to allow time to consider the market.