More than 200,000 complaints made to water companies in 2022/23

Based on findings from its annual household complaint-handling report, it found the main causes of the complaints were for billing and charges – 47% – and for water and wastewater services – 30% and 22% respectively.  

Meanwhile, the number of customers who sought help from CCW in resolving their complaints remained relatively stable during the year – up one percent – but the watchdog has seen a 29% rise in complaints brought to it during the first quarter of 2023-24.  

The industry’s overall performance, however, was skewed by the large number of complaints made to the two poorest performers in the industry – namely Thames Water and Southern Water. Complaints recieved by Southern Water were almost three times higher than the overall average for water and sewerage companies – with Thames Water’s just over one and a half times higher.  

CCW chief executive Dr Mike Keil said: “Trust in the water sector has never been more fragile and the task of rebuilding it is made all the more challenging when companies perform as poorly as Thames Water and Southern Water.  

“We’re especially concerned that these two companies have not performed well across all the main causes for people to complain and that Thames, in particular, is compounding customers’ frustrations with delays and a failure to resolve many issues first time. Customers have a right to expect better from such an essential utility provider where switching supplier is not an option.” 

Credit Strategy has reached out to both Southern Water and Thames Water for comment. In response, Southern Water’s chief customer officer Katy Taylor said: “We recognise that we need to do better at serving our customers and fixing their problems.

“As part of the Turnaround Plan we launched in April to improve our performance across the board, we made better customer service a cornerstone. This is why we are investing in video diagnostics, multi skilling our customer service agents and keeping our customers regularly informed when issues take longer to fix.

“While we are seeing early signs of improvement in the quality and speed we deal with their queries, we know we still have a lot of work to do and are committed to significant improvements.”