South Staffs Water, incorporating Cambridge Water, has submitted its Business Plan for both companies for 2020 – 2025 to Ofwat today.

The plan - ‘Making Water Count’ - follows consultation with more than 40,000 customers over the last two years.

Launching the plan, the firm said it is putting customers at the heart of everything it does and builds on the already high levels of trust and strong performance - the plan enjoys the support of 84% of customers.

Capital investment spend planned for the period is £590 million – the overall investment programme is the company’s largest ever – 40% greater than the current period, made up of net wholesale total expenditure of £538 million and retail expenditure of £52 million.

The company already has one of the lowest bills in the country but is going further. Cambridge Water has taken the step of ensuring bills will not increase above a typical regional average bill level of £144 per customer during 2020-25, delivering an 11% real terms reduction and giving customers the certainty they asked for.

Some of the document’s key points and pledges include an ambitious leakage reduction of 15% in the Cambridge region and also doubling the number of customers the water company provides affordability support to.

Key features of the plan include:

• reducing leakage in the two regions by 25% and 15%
• targeted supply interruptions performance is 31% less than the current level
• water quality customer contacts will improve by 35%
• £63 million to be invested in the two largest treatment works to deliver substantial improvements in water quality and resilience for customers – never envisaged in their original designs
• paying an appointed dividend of just 2%, gearing maintained at below 70% and credit ratings at investment grade despite a substantial increase in investment
• maintaining a flat typical nominal bill of £144 through the period delivering an 11% real terms reduction
• The utility will spend £63 million to upgrade its Hampton Loade and Seedy Mill water treatment
• works by adding an extra treatment stage and clean up to 100 km of trunk mains leaving both works.
• Together, the two treatment works are critical assets and supply water to nearly 60% of customers in the South Staffs region.

Working with the supply chain, the plan say the company is also bringing a new and innovative leakage technology to the UK market – trenchless automated leakage repair (TALR) by Curapipe System Ltd. The technology enables leaks in water distribution pipes to be sealed from the inside without the need to dig up roads or use conventional lining techniques. The company will be the first in the sector to use the technology commercially and plans to share the results of this work with others.

The company is also planning to functionally separate our household retail activities from its wholesale activities, saying:

“Separating our retail and wholesale activities will create a sharper focus on the role each one has in delivering excellent services to customers and make them mutually accountable to one another.”

Phil Newland, Managing Director at Cambridge Water commented:

“Everything we do, starts and ends with our customers and their trust is of paramount importance to us. We are grateful that over 40,000 of them have given up their time to help us shape this plan. We want them to continue to trust us to always provide high-quality water services that are also great value for money. We think this plan as a package does just that.”

Click here to download ‘Making Water Count’