Household complaint handling report 2024

CCW has published its annual household complaint-handling report, which has revealed that water companies are failing to deal with customers’ concerns over environmental performance and water meters, quickly or to a satisfactory standard. This has fuelled a steep rise in complaints to CCW.

Key findings

• Complaints about water companies escalated to CCW rose by almost a third (29%) in 2023-24, largely driven by customers’ concerns over environmental performance and metered bills.
• Overall households made 222,956 complaints directly to water companies in England and Wales, with Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Cambridge Water rated as poor on both main measures.
• Billing disputes remain the biggest cause of complaint with the number made directly to water companies and those brought to CCW both increasing.
• Complaints raised with CCW about companies’ environmental performance – including the impact of spills from storm overflows – increased by 217%