Over 40 property developers and housing association members attended Welsh Water’s developer forum last week.
Before the pandemic, a key part of Welsh Water’s programme of engagement with its developer customers included holding two physical events a year, called the developer forums. Since the advent of COVID-19, the sessions have moved to online virtual events held on Microsoft Teams.
The developer forum involves updates on key customer priority areas, such as new regulation, improvements Welsh Water has made to its service and the encouragement of valuable feedback on how developers find the new water and sewerage connections process.
This year topics ranged from an update on phosphates and how the water company is working with other stakeholders to look at long-term solutions to the issue, a recap on how developer services charges in Wales may be worked out differently in the future, as well as an update on how Welsh Water services continue to be delivered despite COVID-19 challenges.
Welsh Water also launched its new Developer Customer Panel at the event, and revealed it is looking for nominations for panel members. The panel will consist of around 10 key customers, who will act as a sounding board for any new ideas and proposed changes and identify ways Welsh Water and customers can work together better.
Feedback on the forum was positive, with attendees rating it 4.4 out of 5 on average. They also gave a score of 82% for how satisfied they were with Welsh Water’s developer services department’s service in general.
Ian Wyatt, Director of Business Customer Services at Welsh Water said:
"We're proud of our strong track record when it comes to engaging with our developer customers. While we’d love to get back to physical events with our developers, these virtual events are an important way for us to stay connected in the new COVID-19 era. We are looking to further enhance our engagement with developers by launching our new Developer Customer Panel and look forward to reading the nominations in due course. We'd like to thank all of those who attended and made the forum a success."
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