Ofwat has launched a new consultation on its proposal to impose a new customer service licence condition on water companies.

Launching the consultation, Ofwat says there is “a distinct lack of customer service requirements” with the current licences of water and wastewater companies and that a customer-focused licence condition demonstrates the importance of a high standard of customer service and support.

The aim of the licence condition is to tackle instances of poor treatment of customers and to hold companies to account where customers are harmed and / or repeatedly failed. The regulator says it will enable Ofwat to hold companies to account on how they treat all their household customers, including the most vulnerable in society.

The condition will not address individual customer complaints which will continue to be handled by company complaints processes and the complaints resolution powers of the Consumer Council for Water (CCW).

The proposal paper is accompanied by a brief summary for customers asking them whether they agree with new rules to get better customer services from their water company and inviting them to comment.

The summary states:

“Many customers are satisfied with services they receive ……..But there are also many instances where customers feel let down.

“There are far too many examples of companies failing to support and communicate with customers, or manage complaints and compensation fairly when things go wrong. 

There are examples of repeated failures, where water companies aren’t learning from their mistakes – or foreseeing and acting quickly enough to customers’ diversity of needs.

Many people have lost trust in water companies and don’t feel they have their customers’ interests at heart.”

It goes on to explain that Ofwat wants to change water companies’ licences to get them to do better and that the change will mean each company will need to make sure:

• customers are well informed;
• when something does go wrong, affected customers have confidence their company will put it right; and
• all customers’ needs are identified, understood and met by companies in the services and extra help they provide.

“Ofwat will be able to set new rules in areas where companies need to improve. And if companies don’t stick to those rules, we can force them to improve or fine them", the summary says.

The deadline to submit comments on the proposals outlined in the paper is 23 November 2023 – click here to access the consultation document.