CCW welcomes improved service standards for water customers in England
Customers in England who fall foul of poor service from their water company will now benefit from stronger protections under a raft of reforms to the Guaranteed Standards Scheme (GSS).
CCW has welcomed the changes to the scheme which means from today (Wednesday) customers will automatically receive more money for a range of service failures, including disruption to their water supply, sewer flooding and low water pressure. In most cases the automatic payments households and businesses will receive have at least doubled from the previous standards.
The UK Government is also introducing new service protections covering areas ranging from boil water notices and the provision of additional support to customers in vulnerable circumstances to debt recovery and installing and reading water meters. These new standards will take effect from 1 October 2025.
The changes build on many of the recommendations CCW shared with the UK Government last year as part of our campaign to improve GSS, which has remained largely unchanged since it was introduced over 35 years ago.
Commenting on the improved GSS protections, Mike Keil, Chief Executive of CCW, said:
Customers expect to be treated fairly when their water company lets them down, so we’re delighted the Government has moved at pace to strengthen service standards.
This should give people peace of mind they now have far stronger protection from a much broader range of water company service failures – from the slow installation of water meters to the mishandling of debt recovery. As well as bolstering payments for thousands of customers, these changes mark an important step towards restoring trust in the water sector which is at an all-time low.