Ofwat has today published its draft Outcome Delivery Incentive (ODI) determinations for 2025-26, which propose a net £240 million reduction in customer bills, of which £107 million will be returned in customer bills in 2027-28.
The water sector regulator is now inviting comments on the draft determinations, prior to publishing its decisions on final determinations for each company on 15 December 2026.
At the 2024 price review Ofwat set water companies service targets to encourage them to deliver on the objectives that matter to today’s customers, future customers and the environment. Most of companies’ performance commitments – such as leakage, and customer and business experience - have rewards and penalties associated with them, called Outcome Delivery Incentives.
The majority of the ODIs are financial - if a company performs better than the performance commitment level, it may get a financial reward as an outperformance payment. However, if a company performs worse than the performance commitment level it may pay a financial penalty as an underperformance payment.
Companies have already reported on their assessment of their own ODIs via their annual reports - today’s publication by Ofwat consolidates all of these into one.
The payments differ between companies, reflecting the different performance each company achieved in 2025-26 compared to expected. Yorkshire Water and Thames Water will see the largest amount of underperformance payments applied in April 2027, and the largest upward outperformance payments will apply to Severn Trent Water and Northumbrian Water.
The figures are draft and do not mean every household will see the same change. Changes to bills are affected by a range of factors and the effect will vary by company and customer type. Ofwat’s final determinations are due by 15 December 2026 and will affect bills from 1 April 2027. These will consider final decisions on allowed-revenue changes for both ODI payments and the cost change process.
The water sector regulator approved an initial £104 billion of upgrades at the 2024 Price Review to improve services and clean up rivers, lakes and seas. This level of funding reflects the scale of investment needed to deliver capacity in sewage treatment works, reliable pipes and networks, and resilient infrastructure to meet the country's growing water needs. The responsibility now sits with water companies to deliver on this.
The full Ofwat assessment on company performance against targets will be published in the Operational Performance Report (previously the Water Company Performance Report, or WCPR) later this month.
Stakeholders who would like to discuss any aspect of the consultation are asked to contact the In-period ODI team by post or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Deadline to submit comments for the consultation is 5 November 2026. Responses should be sent to:
Via email to : This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Via post to either address below:
- IPD2026 Consultation response Ofwat Centre City Tower 7 Hill Street Birmingham B5 4UA
- IPD2026 Consultation response Ofwat, 11 Westferry Circus, Canary Wharf, London, E14 4HD.
Click here to download Sector overview -Draft determinations of in-period outcome delivery incentives for 2025-26
Enpure Ltd and Clean TeQ Water Ltd have announced a collaboration agreement to bring Clean TeQ Water's Moving Bed Ion Exchange-based nutrient removal technologies to water utilities across the UK.
Near-real-time microbial monitoring of wastewater discharge and bathing waters is now possible thanks to the BactoSense ID solution created by Swiss-based bNovate Technologies.
ABB has launched AquaMaster+™, a digital platform for smart water network management, designed to help water utilities monitor, analyze and manage their water networks, preventing pipeline water losses and optimizing operations.
Craig Nienaber, Business Development Manager for Safe Access Solutions (SAS) at HUBER Technology, explores why the company is seeing a growing level of interest in its safe access solutions for critical infrastructure providers, including their application in wastewater treatment assets.
Southern Water has released film and images showing what it’s like to walk inside Hampshire’s expanded Yew Hill underground reservoir for the very last time, before it gets filled with water.
Hear how Scottish Water has completed its £235 million Ayrshire Glasgow Resilience Project - customers across Greater Glasgow, Ayrshire and East Renfrewshire will now benefit from a more secure and resilient water supply.
Hear how United Utilities is accelerating its investment to reduce spills from storm overflows across the Northwest.