More work needed to put customers at the heart of the retail market

The creation of the Strategic Panel and Code Change Committee in 2021 have boosted customer focus – but more needs to be done to ensure customer interest is front and centre, especially by wholesalers. 

That’s according to a report from Ofwat reviewing market governance. The regulator said:

• Wholesalers’ engagement with market governance is “variegated and often insufficient”. Wholesalers must do more to support the market, and this needs greater commitment at senior and board level. BR-MeX and a reformed Market Performance Framework will support this objective.

• The Code Change Committee’s final recommendation reports on proposed code changes could be “greatly enhanced if they provided more detail and analysis of how a change impacts customers and how stakeholder views have influenced its development, and their drafting could be refined to greater support efficient and effective decision-making”.

• Trading Parties and industry groups well-placed to facilitate innovation need to go further to propose innovative change that benefits customers.