Downward trend in customer complaints has "almost ground to a halt"

Customer complaints rose at close to half of the water companies in England and Wales over 2015-16 as the decreasing trend "almost ground to a halt" according to a CC Water's recently published tenth annual complaint report.

The watchdog said the increases in some instances were "alarming" and has asked the four worst performers to report by the end of October on their actions to address their shortcomings (see chart). Of the 21 firms, ten showed an increase in complaints per 10,000 connections. Total complaints across England and Wales were down 0.5% to just over 106,000. The report focused on written complaints made by household and non-household customers.

The outstanding changes were at Dŵr Cymru, Affinity and Bournemouth. And Southern remained the firm with the largest number of gripes and added to last year's tally by 10% taking it 60% greater that the next worst performer, South West.

The report focused on written complaints made by household and non-household customers.

Source: CC Water