Retailers call on Ofwat to correct information that gives negative view of the market

(by Karma Loveday)

Retailers have called on Ofwat to correct or withdraw a statement in the Business Customer Insight Survey 2025 that they see as “misleading and disingenuous”.

The issue concerns the statement that: “In 2025, just 15% of all business customers were satisfied (net) with the water industry compared to 60% in 2020 and 64% in 2019.”

In a letter to Ofwat responding to the second consultation on the Retail Exit Code, the UK Water Retailer Council (UKWRC), representing retailers, took issue with two aspects of the statement: 

• That given the wording about satisfaction with ‘the water industry,’ the latest sentiment likely reflects views about the performance and behaviour of wholesalers as a whole over recent years, rather than views about the market specifically – especially as “the other metrics all show more engagement and satisfaction with the water retail market”. 

• In previous years, customers were asked about satisfaction with their current retailer, so the comparison over time is not like-for-like. 

UKWRC said: “Since this appears in an Ofwat/CCW report, it is likely to be picked up by others as evidence of a worsening trend – risking promotion of an incorrect and negative narrative being used against the business retail market”. The evidence should not, the council continued, “be used to determine when regulation should be relaxed or assess progress along the roadmap to a flourishing market”.