On 12 February, Ofwat introduced a new condition to water company licences to drive improvement in customer service.
There are clear and binding expectations for water companies around the service and support they provide to customers, including those who need extra help. Enforcement action can be taken for non-compliance.
The licence includes a set of six very high-level principles for customer care and a number of detailed expectations that are set out in a series of guidance documents. We need to say how we meet each of these expectations. Find out more about the customer-focused licence condition on Ofwat's website.
One of the new guidance documents is Service for all – Ofwat's final vulnerability guidance for water companies supporting customers who need extra help.
Among the expectations in this guidance is that companies must develop and publish a vulnerability strategy in June 2024 that sets out their approach to delivering extra help to their customers in the short, medium and long term.
We already have a comprehensive vulnerability strategy (Every Customer Matters) that we first published in 2018 and have updated annually ever since. Every Customer Matters was co-developed with stakeholders and sets out our overall approach to customer care, our aims and commitments, additional services we provide and initiatives to raise awareness and increase uptake of those services.
We want to continue to involve our partners and customer representatives in the evolution of our strategy and would like your help as we look to update our strategy for June 2024.
Please complete the following survey to give your feedback on our strategy and share any ideas for how we can improve it. You will need to read or have the strategy open when responding to the survey. The closing date for the survey is 12 April.
Thank you. We appreciate your support.
