Draft Strategy and Forward Work Programme 2026-27

To meet our overall strategic objectives, CCW’s Forward Work Programme contains the deliverables we will focus on achieving in 2026-27. These are over and above our business-as-usual activities – dealing with complaints, challenging companies, generating insights and communicating with customers. CCW’s day-to-day work helping customers resolve disputes and save money is regularly measured and scrutinised by our Board.

CCW constantly engages at all levels with all the water companies in England and Wales. In 2026-27 we will continue to liaise with them on a regular basis to scrutinise the service they’re delivering to customers – sharing data with them and comparing their performance in various areas against the other companies. We will also keep working with companies individually, in groups and across the whole sector to share good practice and drive up standards.

CCW will also participate in water sector and wider utilities events – eg conferences – to bring the consumer voice into the conversation and drive the agenda forward on billpayers’ behalf. We are the customer representative on both the Strategic Panel (the most senior governance group in the business retail market) and the Code Change Committee (which makes recommendations about changes to market rules). We will continue to work with the National Drought Group and the Wales Drought Liaison Group to support water companies with their communications to customers on what everyone can do to save water.

As well as the specific items of new research detailed below, in 2026-27, CCW will continue to carry out our regular tracking research – our annual household and business customer complaints reports; Water Matters; and Water Mark.

In July 2025, the Independent Water Commission published its final report (pdf). As governments in both England and Wales take forward these recommendations, CCW will represent customers throughout that process. We will also implement the recommendations that directly affect our organisation, as well as working with partners to help them implement the recommendations that relate to them.

CCW core commitments

• CCW will use the lessons from the 2024 price review to make clear, evidence-based recommendations to Ofwat and other stakeholders on how the next price review should better reflect customers’ needs and priorities.
• All customer complaints to CCW will be acknowledged and allocated for review to a case advisor within two working days.
• 80% of cases will be resolved by 20 working days.
• 95% of cases will be resolved by 40 working days.
• CCW will carry out at least one assessment with each water company in England and Wales.
• CCW will carry out at least two complaints assessments with water retailers.
• CCW will audit, via a third-party auditor, water companies’ adherence to complaint-reporting guidance when recording enquiries.

To help increase trust in the water sector, in 2026-27 CCW will:

• Design guidelines for customers about incidents – what emergency help people can expect during an incident and how that changes if the incident is prolonged
• Carry out 6 vulnerability assessments to review water companies’ service to the customers on their priority service register
• Challenge wholesaler policies on compensation for business customers for loss of earnings for fairness and consistency
• Review the TPI (third-party intermediary) principles of behaviour in the business retail market to ensure that customers receive a fair, transparent and honest service from TPIs
• Hold regular customer panels accountability sessions for all water companies in England and Wales
• Commission research to see whether customers of NAVs are more satisfied with their water service than the customers of incumbent providers.

In our commitment to fair and affordable bills, CCW will:

• Publish our view on what innovative tariffs have worked best
• Publish annual water poverty data
• Campaign for relevant and appropriate price and non-price protections for disengaged businesses
• Working with the whole industry, CCW will raise public awareness of affordability support – as measured by CCW’s yearly Water Matters research. The score for all companies should be at least 53% by summer 2026.

To play our part in ensuring resilient water services for customers, CCW will:

• Share learnings with the industry – at least quarterly – on how the rollout of smart meters is working for customers
• CCW will begin a multi-year longitudinal study to measure/explore consumer engagement with water use post smart metering.
• Subject to the launch of Defra’s water efficiency label, CCW will commission research to assess how well it works for consumers and whether it supports water-saving behaviour.

What we cost

CCW’s costs for 2026-27 will be 37.8p per bill payer.