Northumbrian retains top spot as C-MeX scores fall

(by Karma Loveday)

Northumbrian Water held on to first place position in this year’s C-MeX results on household customer experience. Its score of 80.36 for 2024/5 slipped to 75.17 in 2025/6, but it nonetheless continued to lead the pack. Portsmouth Water regained its top three position after coming fourth last year, to take second place with 75.00. Wessex fell from second place to third, with 74.54. Welsh Water left the top three, falling back to sixth.

At the bottom of the table, Thames and Southern switched positions on last year, with Southern in bottom this time with 47.95, compared with Thames’ 50.13. South West Water remained third from bottom.

The performance gap between the highest and lowest scoring companies increased to 27.23 – well in excess of last year’s gap of 18.92 points, which at that point was the largest since the programme began.

The industry average score continued a downward trajectory for the sixth consecutive year, falling significantly to 63.56 from 73.99 in 2024–25, 75.74 in 2023–24 and 81.62 in 2020–21.