Understanding customers’ preferences for Performance Commitments at PR24

Delivering a price review that clearly meets the needs and priorities of customers is a key priority for both Ofwat and CCW. In a joint research project, we have sought to better understand what matters to customers and how far this is reflected in the common Performance Commitments for water companies at PR24.

At the end of PR19 we recognised the need for consistent, centralised research. This research helps us to ensure that the Performance Commitments agreed at PR24 reflect the things customers care about most.

Key findings from this research include:

• Customers view things that affect them personally – such as drinking water quality and sewer flooding – as being of greatest importance.
• Focusing on the customer impact of decisions – rather than water company processes or infrastructure – helps to make research more relatable to customers.
• Other areas  – such as affordability, resilience and fairness – are important to customers and we need to focus on these throughout our work including in the wider price review framework.

We expect that companies will consider this research within the suite of information that they are using to build an understanding of local priorities. This will help explain the need for any potential bespoke performance commitments and related outcome delivery incentives.