CCW chief, Tony Smith to retire June 2020

Tony Smith has announced he will retire from his position of chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) next June.

Smith (pictured) has led CCW since it was formed in 2005, and in total has worked in the utilities and infrastructure sectors for almost 30 years. He commented: “The timing of my departure will allow us to complete the 2019 price review and enable our new chair, Rob Light, to fully take up the reins and recruit a new chief executive to take our organisation forward.”

Smith said it had been a “fantastic privilege” to create CCW with his team and the wider water industry, and “to transform the extent to which customers drive this industry”. He continued: “Since we were set up in 2005, we have been successful in arguing for and dramatically increasing the influence of customers on the industry and its regulation, as demonstrated by the evolution of customer involvement in price setting from PR04 to PR19.

We have helped and, in some cases, cajoled water companies to reduce complaints by 70% since we were set up. And we’ve worked with many of you to make great strides towards tackling affordability, increasing the accessibility of services and improving customer perception.”

Light, said: “Tony has made an immense contribution to the significant improvements we’ve seen in the water industry over the past 14 years. The voice of the customer now carries much more weight with companies, regulators and government and he must take enormous credit for that.”