Review of PR24 guidance on testing company business plans

Back in December 2022, CCW and Ofwat published their guidance to water companies on how to approach research on the affordability and acceptability of their proposed business plans for 2025 to 2030.

The guidance set out the approach for water companies to use for qualitative and quantitative research to understand people’s preferences for areas of investment. Guidance was also given on how to identify customers’ views on how affordable and acceptable they found the proposed business plan.

These reports focus separately on the qualitative and the quantitative approaches, each taking a practitioner perspective and reflecting on feedback provided by water companies on using the guidance. Each report presents several areas for CCW and Ofwat to consider as a first step in updating the guidance for water companies to apply to their business plan research for the next price review (PR29).  CCW and Ofwat will work in collaboration with the industry to develop this guidance for PR29.