Rob Wilson, Chair: CCW’s 2025-26 Forward Work Programme

CCW Chair, Rob Wilson, reflects on how CCW – through its Forward Work Programme commitments – will continue to fight for fair, affordable and reliable access to services for water consumers.

Every five years Ofwat undertakes a price review, and so the last 18 months has seen a flurry of activity in the water sector – from water companies submitting their business plans to Ofwat’s draft and then final determinations on what customers will pay for the next five-year period, and the investment and improvements the sector will be expected to deliver in return.

April 2025 brought the largest rise in water bills since privatisation of the water industry 36 years ago. This is to pay for unprecedented investment over the next five years to deal with many issues that concern customers – from environmental pollution to fixing leaks and installing water meters. Water companies have made big promises to customers about their investment programme and CCW intends to hold them accountable to those promises. Indeed, the revival in consumer trust in the industry depends on delivery and excellent customer service.

Throughout the price review process, CCW has been focused on ensuring the views of customers are heard and acted upon. We have consulted and listened to customers at every opportunity and made sure your views and concerns are heard directly by Ofwat and other key participants.

But the final decisions made by Ofwat just before Christmas 2024 don’t mark the end of this price review or CCW’s scrutiny and challenge of this industry. With trust in the water sector at an all-time low, there is still so much for us to do.

Five water companies have reacted to Ofwat’s final determinations by going to the Competition and Markets Authority to appeal to put bills up even higher, with one other company having deferred its decision on whether to join  them. CCW will continue to make sure that in the next few months, as the appeal process gathers pace, the voice of the billpayer is not drowned out by water companies and the interests of their investors. That’s why, for example, we had MCC Economics & Finance take an independent look (pdf) at the weighted cost of capital (WACC), which suggests Ofwat’s WACC allowance for companies could have been lower, saving customers a whopping £5.4 billion over the five-year pricing period.

Last year, CCW piloted how best to make our expertise and customer focus available to all the water companies in England and Wales via our reinvigorated complaints assessments. The aim is to help water companies improve their service through understanding what best practice looks like. CCW teams spend two full days with a water company’s customer services team, carrying out deep-dive assessments of a random selection of customer complaints. Water companies tell us they find these assessments constructive and as a result, we are already seeing improvements to the way customer complaints are handled.

In this coming year, CCW will carry out at least eight complaint assessments with household water companies and at least two with the retailers that provide water services to businesses. And we’ll be publishing the results. We’ll also be undertaking at least five incident assessments and five debt assessments with water companies.

In 2025-26, CCW has pledged to carry out at least one formal investigation – either into services for households or business customers – as per CCW’s powers under section 29A of the Water Industry Act 1991:

To be clear, CCW already investigates issues we see arising from customer complaints. For example, in 2023, we got over a third of a million pounds back for more than 3,500 businesses in England. We took action after discovering the firms had been significantly overcharged on their bills when water retailers misinterpreted a change to Ofwat’s retail exit code made in 2020. Going forward, we will badge these investigations more formally to make clear that they fall under our official remit.

CCW has been campaigning for several years for a single social tariff to replace the current postcode lottery of support for customers who cannot afford their water bill. So we were delighted to see the Water (Special Measures) Bill get Royal Assent in February 2025. A clause in this amends the Water Industry Act 1991 to make cost-sharing across water companies (and their customers) in England possible, in order to facilitate and fund social tariff support.

There is clearly an urgent need for fairer and more consistent support as customers face unprecedented water bill rises over the next five years. At least 2 in 5 households have told us they will find these bill rises difficult to afford and the financial support on offer from water companies – while it is improving – doesn’t go far enough.

We would like to see a single social tariff in place as soon as possible as these steep bill rises are just kicking in and customers are really noticing them. Ideally, we’d like to see it launched within a maximum of two years, but the sooner the better.

A big emerging issue for customers is smart metering. Most water companies are planning a huge rollout of smart meters over the next few years. From 2025 to 2030, water companies will be installing 10.4 million smart meters for households and businesses. This is compared to the two million smart meters that were installed between 2020-25. Yet CCW has seen complaints increase to companies and to CCW when metering programmes are rolled out.

Smart meters can deliver many benefits – more real-time data should identify more leaks; customers and businesses can see clear information about their water consumption, which could help drive behaviour change to reduce usage; and smart meters will give water companies data to help them design innovative tariffs to encourage customers to use water wisely.

So in 2025-26, CCW will be supporting water companies to provide the right information to customers so households and businesses can save water and money. We’ve been doing research to find out what customers expect from the installation of smart meters and we’re working with water companies to make sure the journey to widespread smart metering in England and Wales meets those expectations.

And all the while, every day, our dedicated complaints team are helping customers resolve their issues with their water company. Already this year, we’ve launched a dedicated support team within our customer services department to give customers a more tailored approach. We are committed to delivering a supportive and personalised service that prioritises dignity, respect and customer wellbeing.

I’m excited to keep you up to date throughout the year on how CCW is meeting its commitments, and holding water companies to the promises they made to the public in return for this year’s bill rises.