MOSL Chairman Jim Keohane has said “we know we need to improve delivery and rebuild trust”, following what he describes as a challenging year for the retail water sector’s market operator.

He was commenting in MOSL’s newly-published proposed Business Plan for 2020/21 setting out its key priorities for the year ahead.

The market operator for the retail water sector said the plan had been developed following the most robust business planning process it has undertaken to date.

Introducing the plan, Jim Keohane said it the current year had been “a challenging one” for MOSL, following the completion of the organisation’s move to Southampton and the transfer of knowledge to new colleagues, many of whom were new to the industry.

Despite high levels of turnover in staff and the need to strengthen the senior leadership team, MOSL had continued to deliver core services to members and it remained on to deliver within the approved budget for the year, he added, saying:

“However, the changes we have seen have not been without impact, and we know we need to improve delivery and rebuild trust.”

Commenting in the plan, Chief Executive Officer Dr Sarah McMath, who joined MOSL in June 2019, said:

“Our stakeholders have told us that the overall cost and complexity of operating in this market is greater than in other comparable markets, and that in particular, the high indirect cost of operation for its participants is impacting on its overall success.”

“We need a market in which participants are able to create value and drive customer benefits, rather than one characterised by issues and frictions that reduce value.”

The business plan states:

“We recognise that for the market to deliver the benefits promised to non-household customers prior to market opening, we must work collectively with stakeholders to address the issue that operating in the water market ‘is just too difficult’.

It goes on to acknowledge that MOSL itself “at times (has) contributed to this, as have the rules and the structure of the market itself and the performance and actions oftrading parties within it.”

Launching the plan, MOSL said it had reduced the proposed total budget for 2020/21 from £11.5 to £11.2m, which reflects a £0.5m (4.7%) increase on 2019/20, following a strong challenge from members.

MOSL said the change recognised the cost pressures being faced by trading parties and the need to limit any increase in direct costs as far as possible. The reduction in overall budget has been achieved by identifying further efficiencies.

The operator has also decided to progress with a more risk-based, targeted market audit in 2020/21 but with an additional £50k allocated to the budget to respond to the challenge from a number of trading parties that it had been reduced too far.

The 2020/21 budget includes project costs of £600k for MOSL’s bilateral transactions project. However, it has taken the decision not to include the solution costs within the budget for 2020/21 following a strong challenge from a number of members that the business case needed to be clearer before solution costs should be committed to.

Members of MOSL will have the opportunity to attend a General Meeting at 10.30am on Friday 31 January 2020 to vote on whether or not to accept the business plan.

Click here to download MOSL’s Business Plan 2020-21