Blog: Is the water market delivering for businesses?

1 April 2022 marked the point that the non-household retail market in England had been open for 5 years, and it’s fair to say, that the experience for many business customers has not aligned with the benefits the market was expected to deliver for them.

At CCW, we have worked hard to help improve services for businesses, both by holding companies to account at an individual complaints level, but also by working with the industry to make improvements too. This has involved understanding customer experience with the market through regular research, and analysing complaints evidence, which has been key in ensuring we are campaigning for improvements in the right areas. While this has provided plenty of insight, it was time to take a step back and produce a comprehensive report based on how the market has fared for customers from their perspective since it opened.

We are currently reviewing all our evidence and wider research insights to prepare the report, which will be published on 15 March. This review is really important given some of the issues we are seeing customers’ experience. Engagement levels for most businesses, particularly micro and small customers, remain low. Alongside this, a large number are still unaware that the market exists. Satisfaction levels with retail services are markedly lower in England compared to Wales for business customers with complaints from business customers to CCW remaining three times as high as they were before the market opened, despite a recent decline.

Given our role as the consumer body, our review will be uniquely from a customer perspective, based on our evidence from research, handling complaints, and talking with businesses of all sizes. However, undertaking a review of all our evidence within one report will enable us to make well evidenced recommendations for what needs to change for business customers, who needs to make these changes, and by when.

Our report recommendations will shape the work of CCW’s business customer team for 2023-24 and beyond, by working with key decision makers and trading parties to implement the changes for businesses.

The publication of our Five Year Review will mark the start of our campaign for change in the water retail market. We will be launching the report at a live online event at 10.30am on 15 March.