Gripes drop at four firms under customer watchdog scrutiny

All four companies put on notice by the Consumer Council for Water to reduce complaints have each reported significant drops between October and December 2016.

Written complaint numbers fell most drastically at Southern Water (down 53% compared with the same period in 2015), followed by Bournemouth Water (-35%), Welsh Water (-18%) and Affinity Water (-13%).

CC Water demanded action to curb what it described as an “alarming spike” in complaints during 2015/16. The watchdog said all four are now on track to reduce complaints in 2016/17 having introduced a range of measures to improve customer service or address problems arising from billing systems.

All four companies have been asked to provide CCWater with another update at the end of April to ensure their performance is continuing to improve. CCWater’s annual complaints report will be published in September.

Severn Trents' asset strategy leader to lead policy and research at CC Water

Severn Trent’s asset strategy business leader Mike Keil will take over as CC Water’s head of policy and research, when Deryck Hall retires in early May.