The second quarterly report of developer service standards published by Water UK, the body which represents all the UK water companies, shows the firms have improved on their overall levels of delivery and performance.

Following publication of a draft set of the levels of service in the Government’s Better Connected in December 2014, in April 2015 Water UK published a set of service levels for water companies’ developer services. All water companies voluntarily agreed to the levels of service and are monitoring their performance against them.

This followed Ofwat’s and the Government’s challenge to companies to improve customer service in relation to the provision of new connections.

Water UK and its member companies worked with developers and their representative organisations to produce guidelines and best practice to ensure that the water and sewerage infrastructure needed for modern homes is provided efficiently.

The guidelines are aimed at ensuring that the water and sewerage infrastructure that is needed for modern homes is provided efficiently.

The report shows that figures for water supply have risen from 89% to 93% in response to 125,000 developer requests and for sewerage they are up from 94% to 97% - in response to 9,000 developer requests.

Commenting on the results, Richard Warneford, Wastewater Director at Northumbrian Water who chairs the Water UK Developer Services Standards Group said:

“While the measurement and publication of these figures is still relatively new, an early trend is emerging with evidence that reporting is already driving improvements in performance. Over the past quarter there have been some inevitable increases and decreases in some of the 24 measures but we will use these results to engage with our key stakeholders to ensure the measures remain appropriate and properly reflect the levels of service expected of water companies.

“These standards are just one part of our work to improve services for our developer customers and we know there is much more to be done. We have been working hard on providing input to the current work by Defra on improving the charging regime for the provision of infrastructure for new development. At the same time, we are looking at ways that water companies can reduce delays in the planning process arising from applications for new infrastructure for housing development.

“This package of initiatives shows we are determined to play our part in helping new building projects progress more speedily across the UK.”

The quarterly report measures water company performance in dealing with a broad range of activities which are essential for housing development against levels of service that customers, developers and self lay organisations can expect in relation to the provision of water services infrastructure.

Water UK said the water companies are publishing the data to provide transparency about their performance and to help drive improvements. The standards also form part of the government initiative to publish levels of service for all utility providers.

Ofwat - "we will continue to seek assurances from companies that are underperforming"

Commenting on the latest figures, Richard Khaldi, Senior Director Customers and Casework at Ofwat said:

“It is encouraging to see that water companies are realising the importance of their relationships with developers as their customers. The transparency these reports provide about performance is creating a strong reputational incentive for companies to better their service standards for developers.

“We will continue to seek assurances from companies that are underperforming about how they plan to engage with customers to improve their services.

“We see the levels of services as part of a wider dialogue across the sector to improve their developer services, enable growth, and I am encouraged to see good practice being shared among companies.”

Click here to access the Water UK Developer Report Q2