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“The water audit experts” offer water audit expertise to energy firms to plug skills gap.

With water deregulation nearly upon us in England offering opportunities for none residential customers to choose their own water supplier, enabling them to change water provider and the welcome attention in the media promoting the water industry “The water audit experts” at H20 Building Services express serious concerns at the lack of skills, knowledge and expertise within the water industry in the UK.

The water and waste water industry is receiving media attention like never before, global water scarcity, severe water shortages and closer to home water industry deregulation in England in an attempt to break up monopolies and create competition and innovation but with water retail margins so low in the single digit range whats in it for the consumer?

The impending deregulation is promoting water like never before, raising the profile in line with other utilities such as gas and power which is a good thing as reducing consumption of all three utilities is good for the environment and good for company finances.

But in creating a market with such low margins for the water retailers who can only offer low single digit discounts to consumers, they have little choice than to entice new customers and retain existing customers with added value services such as offering water and waste water cost reduction services and charging fees for these services.

Be under no illusion the consumer will pay and probably in most cases over the top fees such as share of savings contracts, the water retailers have no choice in the matter as there is simply little or no profit so they have to play the long game.

Here are the issues: – There is an increasing demand for water audit expertise including water leak detection engineers and water consultancy experts capable of carrying out site surveys and writing up reports containing recommendations for cost savings measures in all areas of industrial, and commerce.

These experts simply do not exist in large enough numbers to cope with the huge demand for these services both within the water companies and within most of the energy consultancies who now recognise that they must offer water consultancy services at the highest level of expertise in order to complete and survive. They are now expected to offer expertise in gas, power and now water or lose clients and stifle expansion plans and there are in fact very few water audit expert firms with decades of knowledge and expertise under their belts.

What we are seeing is the energy industry turning to the established top tier water consultants and entering into 3rd party deals with them and effectively outsourcing water projects.

We will also see acquisitions of these water audit firms and may be mergers of the water audits firms to create larger more effective water consultancies.

All this is great for business but with the skills shortage and the shear amount of water work demanded growth in the industry will be stifled for at least a few years as water consultancies invest and and energy consultancies recruit and train staff in an effort to keep up with growing demand.