Anglian, Wessex and Portsmouth deliver the best service on customer priorities

Anglian Water, Wessex Water and Portsmouth Water topped Ofwat’s 2018-19 Service delivery report, while Thames Water and Hafren Dyfrdwy sat at the bottom of the table. All the remaining companies put in average performance except South West Water, which did better than average but didn’t quite make the top band.

The report measures how companies are doing on customers’ priority outcomes including leakage, pollution, supply interruptions, sewer flooding, water quality contacts and customer satisfaction.

Ofwat observed that there as a “real gap” between the best and worst performers in the sector, and that “the industry as a whole has not kept up the progress made in earlier years and performance has stagnated”. It pointed out, for example, that despite increasing since 2015-16, customer satisfaction across the sector has deteriorated in 2018-19, and that while eight companies made modest reductions in leakage, these are more than offset by the increases made by the poorer performing companies.

The report also charted company spend against allowances. The sector overspent against its total wholesale expenditure allowance by 6% in 2018-19, but there remains a cumulative underspend of 2% over the 2015-2019 period. Leaders Anglian, Wessex and Portsmouth all underspend across the four years.