Ofwat's Interim Cief Executive David Black has written to water company CEOs challenging them to step up their efforts to support effective markets.
Rachel Fletcher , David Black’s predecessor, wrote to incumbent companies in England over two years ago to say that levels of support for effective markets were at that time unacceptable.
Ofwat concluded in 2020 that despite some improvements, including the liquidity support provided to business retailers during Covid-19 overall, incumbent companies needed to play a more active role in supporting the business retail and developer services markets.
Writing to the CEOs, David Black said Ofwat remains of the view that, despite some improvements, water companies can still do more to support effective markets.
He cited Ofwat’s recent investigation into Thames Water which concluded that the company had failed to meet its licence conditions and code obligations relating to the quality of its market data, as an example that Ofwat was willing to use the full range of its regulatory tools if necessary.
The letter highlights some important initiatives in the business retail and developer services markets and sets out Ofwat's expectation that the incumbent water companies fully support these.
In addition to setting out recent positive examples, David Black highlights additional areas where Ofwat expects to see further support, including as companies begin to prepare their business plans for PR24.
Click here to read the letter in full
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