Water companies must deliver “step change” in performance and investment

These plans will be subject to scrutiny and challenge by the regulator before final decisions are made in December 2024. 

It comes as Ofwat has told companies they must be ambitious in their plans to reduce pollution, while delivering value for money for bill payers – with the regulator saying it wants to see businesses transform their performance for consumers and the environment.  

To drive this, it will be putting in place an incentive regime which rewards companies for effective delivery but hits those that fail to step-up to the challenge with financial penalties.  

Ofwat will be seeking the views on these business plans, which will include a series of public meetings where customers and stakeholders will be able to give feedback to each company on their plans and ask questions. 

Ofwat’s chief executive David Black said: “The water industry needs to deliver a step change in investment and performance to clean up our rivers and seas, while also helping to ensure that we can meet the challenge of climate change. 

“Company business plans are an important first step in the price review process. Ofwat’s role is to forensically scrutinise their proposals, to ensure any increase in bills is justified, efficient and delivers significant improvements in river and bathing water quality. We will assess how companies are helping customers to afford any bill increase.

“As we work through the business plans we will continue to monitor companies’ performance, hold them to account for delivering improvements and push them to build meaningful plans to change.”